The angler's souvenir

fflpWW ^ I livl

MMI

> "_>:»

> : >,> / i

> />>"":»*'->:
->• m y:> 3» i

> ); >^> "^D

> ;>»^> i»

> ~>»;> >» -

> »^> x> >

JO J»

•

Ki

>

P >»-..
^ :»;>

25M5D

>VJ>O |r
^ ^> *> >

^:> >
r>^> p
^x> >

•5>'>.> ^
^>>^> 3
^i>3 3

IE> ^>
fe> >-

^"> ^ •> > ^ ~> j A

>"

GENERAL
LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY Of

CALIFORNIA

A"-

*

* f

i

To all that love us,
and tlie Jionest art of Angling,

STUDY TO. BE QUIET.

As inward lore breeds outward talk ,

The Hound, some praise and some the Hawk:

Some "better pleased mth. private sport.

Use Tamils some a Mistress court :

But these delights I neither wish
ETor enw •while T freely fish. .

THE

P. FISHER, E S O •

/' - U/- j//''/ /y , // / / '//// / /////// /// •

PISCATORY CHARACTERS

with Illustrations \*- -

TO CAPT. JAMES FISHER,

OF THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY'S REGIMENT OF NATIVE

INFANTRY, CALCUTTA.

"Dear Brother Jim/'

As my earliest angling reminis-
cences recall the happy days of our boyhood and
youth, when we were companions in many an angling
excursion, and when we fished the rippling hum
"from morn to dewy eve"— now wading middle-deep
in the stream, and now walking dry-shod on the bank
— I know no person to whom I can more appropriate-
ly dedicate "The Angler's Souvenir," than yourself.

The "Dedication" copy — which your friend
Major Armstrong, who expects to sail on the 1st of
September, has kindly promised to take charge of—
you will please to keep as a small token of brotherly
affection. The other copy, sent at the same time-
one side of the binding of which is ornamented with

the trophies of war, surmounted with a Bengal
tiger rampant, and the other ornamented with an-
gling apparatus, surmounted with a Tweed salmon
hauriant — I wish you to present, in my name, to
the regimental library. Great indeed would he our
reward — I now write for" Self and Co." the joint con-
tributors to the volume — should "The Angler's Sou-
venir" afford an hour's entertainment, by recalling
thoughts of former days, to those who have aban-
doned the long rod and ozier creel, for the "spurtle
blade and dog-skin wallet," and who, instead of
walking by the pleasant streams, and through the
woods and green meadows of their native land, now
march by the banks of the Ganges and the Jumna,
or traverse the jungles and arid plains of Hindostan.
Should " The Angler's Souvenir" prove acceptable to
those who are far distant from "the green islands
of their sires," I would fain hope that it may not
be wholly uninteresting to the brotherhood of an-
glers at home, for whose delectation and instruction
it is more especially intended.

Should you wish to know, my dear James, what
portion of the volume was written by your loving
brother, I must honestly confess that throughout
the greater part of it, I have been little more than

"a disposer of other men's stuff;" putting together
and arranging, in something like order, the various
communications, both written and verbal, which I
have received from "several eminent piscatory cha-
racters." Tour old school-fellow, Robert Salkeld, of
the Gill-foot, who is a perfect " anglimaniac"— thanks
to Christopher North for the word— has " contributed"
liberally; and old Mich. Routiedge, "the lang-weaver
of Laggenby," whom you will recollect as an excel-
lent fly-fisher and a notorious poacher, has furnished
— orally, for he cannot write — some "valuable infor-
mation." Cousin Alick Tweddell, who was just
breeched when you went out to India, has also
lent his assistance; and the greater part of the
notice of the Thames and some of its tributary
streams, is written by Mr. Wm. Simpson, a partner
in the celebrated firm of " Simpson and Co." Several
other gentlemen of piscatory eminence have also
afforded their valuable aid; but their great modesty,
the certain indication of genius, does not permit me
to mention their names: "Like violets by a mossy
stone," more "than half hidden from the eye/' they
are content to diffuse their sweetness unseen. Res-
pecting the illustrations, I need not say one word.
They speak for themselves.

Before concluding my Epistle, I think it neces
sary to inform, you that "The Angler's Souvenir"
was ready for the press in October last; but that
several unforeseen causes of delay, which printers
and publishers only can explain, have retarded its
appearance till the present timei If the calculations
of astronomers and printers are to be depended on,
I expect that it will positively make its appearance
here about the same time as the comet, and reach
you, as a New Tear's gift, about the 1st January. In
the same feeling with which it is inscribed, accept
it, my dear James,

ft

From your loving Brother,

P. FISHER.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Pleasures of Angling1
Youthful Anglers
Unhappy Anglers

Bottom-fishers ....
Life-preserver for Bottom-fishers
Fashionable and scientific Anglers
Pleasures of Fly-fishing in the country
The fanciful " Amateur" Angler
How angling only can be enjoyed

Page
1
2

12
14

CHAPTER II.

Excellent angling in the Lochs of Scotland
Great " take" of trouts by the Ettrick Shepherd
Laking and Anglimania
THE THAMES .....

Richmond ......

Twickenham to Hampton
Staines to Windsor, across Ruunemede
Sir Henry Wottou, Provost of Eton
Windsor to Henley ....

Dorchester to Oxford ....

Angling station at Pangboum

Oxford anglers .....

THE KENNET .....

Size of trouts in the Keuiiet

21
22
25
26
28
29
31
32
32
33
34
35

Vlll.

Page
Angling near Hungerford ••.... 36

Lambourn ......... 37

A large trout caught iu a pond near Welford House . . 37

THE COLNE ........ 38

Long-ford, Harmondsworth, and Drayton .... 38

The Colne much netted ....... 39

Denham . . . . . . . . .40

THE WANDLE ........ 42

Croydon,Beddington, Wellington, and Carshalton . . 43

Anne Boleyn's Well 44

Mitchara ......... 45

THE LEA . . . . . . . . .45

Drifts of Sunday Anglers on the Lea .... 45

Blowing brains ...... 46

Change of manners since the days of Izaak Walton . . 47

The Rye House .48

Page's " The Eel and Pike ;" Want's, «' The Crown," Broxbourn, 51
King's Weir, Waltham Abbey, and Flauder's Weir . . 52

Cook's Ferry to Stratford ...... 52

CHAPTER III.

An angling party at the Rye House .

A polite note ......

Commencement of an "Angling Palaver"

Effects of good ale .....

Eulogium on Father Walton ....

Walton's Angler recommended for the use of Schools

Fly-fishing

Chantrey's salmon-fishing ....

Pot-fishing in Yorkshire ....

Angling Academy for grown Gentlemen

Trolling in the Lea .....

Puut-fi&hing, with music ....

Song, "The Angler's Reveille"

Medwin's "Angler in Wales" ....

Tales of a Traveller about Byron

Traveller takes a type by the wrong handle

Hansard's u Trout and Salmon Fishing in Wales"

55
56
58
60
61
63
65
67
68
71
71
74

77
77

IX.

Page

The " Angrier in Ireland," and " Stephen Oliver" ... 84

" Maxims and Hints for an Angler" . . . . • . 85

American angling 86

Lady-Anglers ........ 87

Sheep-washing injurious to the angler's sport ... 88

Destructive practice of liming ..... 90

Large American tnmt ....... 91

Proposed party to Lake Huron ..... 91

Fly-fishing in Pennsylvania ...... 92

" Mutual Instruction" about flies .... 92

Catching a salmon ....... 94

Salmon and trout seized with apoplexy .... 95

How to land a salmon ....... 95

Inverness-shire and Cunnemara recommended for salmon-fishing 97
The Angler's Eveu-song ... . . .99

CHAPTER IV.

Requisites of a good rod for fly-fishing
Salmon-rod ......

Reel

Lines for salmon and trout-fishing

Hooks

General observations on flies .

Instructions for dressing flies

Pleasures and advantages of an angler dressing his

Contents of the dubbirig-bag .

List of salmon-flies .

List of hackles and winged flies for trout

Lists of flies for each month generally erroneous .

Sir H. Davy's conjectures about the " reason" of a s

the fly

Salmon when in rivers probably eat something

Angling apparatus .

Buits

CHAPTER V.

Probable derivation of " Anglia" .

Climate of England propitious to anglers .

St. Wilfred probably an angler .

List of fish chiefly caught in the lakes and streams of BIT

Cautionary hints to anglers .

Angling for Salmon ......

Grey . .

Bull-trout, sea-trout, and whitling

Common or burn-trout .

Brandling- trout or par .

Char

Grayling ......

Guiniad, or Schelley

Smelts ......

Pike

Perch

Pope or Ruff

Barbel

Carp

Tench ......

Chub . . . . .

Dace

Roach ......

Bream ......

Gudgeon . . • •

Bleak

Minnow ......

Loach ......

Bull-head, or Miller's Thumb

Eel

Burbot ......

Stickleback ....

Conclusion, from the " Secrets of Angling"

THE

CHAPTEfl I.
ANGLING, PRO AND CON.

" WHEN fair Aurora rising early shewes
Her blushing face beyond the eastern hils,
And dyes the heavenly vault with purple rewes,
That far abroad the world with brightnesse tils ;
The meadows green are hoare with silver dewes,
That on the earth the sable night distils,

And chanting birds with merry notes bewray
The near approaching of the chearfull day.

Then let him go to river, brook, or lake,

That loves the sport, where store of fish abound,
And through the pleasant fields his journey make,

Amidst sweet pastures, meadows fresh and sound,
Where he may best his choice of pastime take,
While swift Hyperion runs his circle round;
And, as the place shall to his liking prove,
There still remain, or further else remove.

The Secrets of Anyling, by John Dannys, Esq. 1613.

THE true secret of the Angler's purest and most
lasting pleasure — whose remembrance is sweet, and
anticipation exhilarating, — is discovered in the
stanzas which we have prefixed as a befitting intro-
duction to the present chapter. The practice of
Angling is closely and necessarily associated with
objects, the contemplation, nay, the very beholding,
of which fails not to impart a pleasure to every man

B

• v^-is.. V

whose soul, is not insensible to the charms presented
by the natural combination of

" Field and forest, flood and hill,
Tower, abbey, church, and mill/1—

such as our friend here will enjoy after he has landed
the salmon, which has held him in work for this last
hour and a half.

Though the love of angling is generally acquired in
youth, yet it sometimes attacks persons of more ma-
ture age; conveys a maggot into their head, and then
they dream, of gentles ; tickles their nose with a May-
fly, and straight they talk of palmers, red and black,
dun-cuts, granams, coachmen, professors, gnats, moths,
March browns, and peacock hackles; shows them a
salmon in a fishmonger's shop, and then they think of
landing an eighteen pounder; makes them dream,
speak, and think of nothing but angling ; and

" . . . . winna let the puir bodies
Gang about their business !"

Few persons who have been educated in the country ,
except the peevish or sickly, and such as have had a
brute for a master, can look back upon their boyish
days without bringing to mind many recollections of
real, heartfelt, unalloyed pleasure ; amongst which that
of angling, with an episode of bathing or bird-nesting,
is not the least delightful. On a fine summer afternoon
— when the new-mown hay smells sweet, when the trees
are in full leaf, and wild-flowers in full bloom, the corn
in the ear, and the bean in blossom; when there are
trout in every burn, and nests in every hedge and

8

thicket — happy are the school-hoys who ohtain a half
holiday; and few of the pleasures of life, either for pre-
sent enjoyment or after-thought, exceed those of such
an occasion. The kind master — masters who occasion-
ally give such an indulgence are always kind good men
— with a suppressed smile of satisfaction announces the
glad tidings, and immediately retires, that he may not
witness the somewhat indecorous haste with which
hooks and slates are laid aside, and hats and caps
scramhled for. Like a swarm of hees casting, they rush
out of school with a joyful hum, and then, spreading
themselves in groups upon the green, hold council
how they shall "best dispose of the portion of golden
time which has "been accorded to them per gratiam
domini — through the kindness of the master. One party
is off to the meadow, to plague the farmer by tumhling
among the hay, when they pretend to assist him in
tedding it; another is gone to the wood and the coppice,
to cut sticks, gather flowers, and seek "bird-nests ; and
a third has determined to try the fishing, after taking
a "bathe in the Friar's Pool, as they go up the burn.
Those of the latter party who have rods, now produce
them, and a survey and fitting of tackle take place ;
while such as are not so well provided set out in search
of brandling worms and cad-bait ; their reward for such
service being a cast now and then, with the honor of
carrying the fish home.

To attend our fishing-party : they have now had their
bathe in the Friar's Pool; the swimmers boldly plung-
ing in from the ledge of rocks at the head, and the

-fc " \
^

7 ^-

N^

sinkers prudently confining themselves to dabbling
about in the shallows ab the foot. Two young ones, who
would not go over-head voluntarily, were, to prevent
them taking cold, thrice ducked nolens volens ; and
another, who would not bathe, was gently bumped
against a sod-dyke. They now proceed to the serious
business of the afternoon, — fishing. The strongest, as
a matter of right, selecting such parts of the water as
appear to them best; the weaker fishing where they
can; and those who have neither rod nor line, wait-
ing on such as have, or trying to catch minnows and
loaches with their hands, or to spear eels with the
prongs of an old fork stuck in a broom-stick.

Here is a chubby little fellow, in a pinafore, five last
birthday, making his firs b essay as an angler. His rod
is an untrimmed stick of hazel, which he has picked up
by the way; his line a couple of yards of pack-thread;
his hook one of the four old, beardless, rusty ones,
•which he bought as a bargain of a schoolfellow ; and his
bait the worms which he dug in his grandmother's gar-
den, breaking the handle of her fire-shovel in turning
up the earth. But though rude his tackle and small his
skill, ere the sun set great was his reward. The water
was in prime order, and the fish bit freely. He caught
five minnows, and an eel twice as long as his middle
finger, and almost as thick; and lost, as he affirmed
and verily believed, a trout about three pounds
weight, which dropped off just as he was whisking him
out. This is the first step of the angler's progress ; and
from this day forward, when time and tide serve, will

he fish "by rapid stream and broad river, "by highland
loch and lowland mere; until, "sans teeth, sans eyes,
sans taste, sans everything," he relapse into childhood
again.

The hoy who has thus auspiciously entered on his
noviciate proceeds gradually until he takes a master's
•degree, an honor to which no one is admitted "before he
has performed the qualifying act of hooking and land-
ing, without assistance, a salmon not less than fourteen
pounds weight; after which he ought, on producing his
testimonium, to have the entre of every angling club
throughout G-reat Britain and Ireland. Should there he
no salmon-fishing in the waters where he exercises his
skill, then a jack of the same weight, also taken without
assistance, or a stone and a half of trout, half a hundred-
weight of "barbel, or a peck of dace, roach, or perch
caught in a day's fair fishing, not in dock or pond, may
be allowed as a qualification, speciali gratia, for the same
degree. It is here to be noted that bream may be allowed
instead of barbel, or be weighed with them, if taken in
the same day's fishing ; and that carp and tench may
be weighed with trout. E els are not reckoned ; and gud-
geon-fishers are always to be considered in a state of
pupilage, and their take not to be admitted in proof of
angling skill, either by weight, tale, or measure. Gud-
geon-fishing, as Michael Angelo said of oil-painting, is
only fit for women and boys. To take a salmon in fresco
—that is, in a fresh or spate, as a north-country friend
translates it— is the perfection of the angler's art.

Though no person, however partial to angling, and

however fond of walking, in pursuit of his sport,
through pleasant meads and by rippling streams,
can "be entitled to the character of a skilful angler,
unless he "be capable of "bringing home, "by the fair
exercise of his rod and line, a tolerable load of fish ;
yet it "by no means follows that mere fish killers,
whose practice has never extended "beyond the Docks
at JBlackwall, the Surrey and Regent's Canals, or a mile
from Islington, on the New Eiver, are entitled to the
name of anglers, in the "best sense of the word. Their
hands are dabbled in "blood— from the butcher's tub—
and fouled with the garbage with which they bait their
ground; and there is the fragrance of no flowers to con-
ceal the loathsome smell. They hear not the murmur
of the stream, nor the song of birds ; they see not the
forest in the fulness of summer leaf, nor the meadow
prankt with summer flowers. Confined, in pairs, in a
punt or boat, or singly to a strip of ground some thirty
feet long, the extent of their rod and line, they sit or
stand for hours, the picture of despondency — their eyes
never raised from their float, unless when roused by the
coarse salute of a sailor or bargeman, or by the sarcastic
query of "what success?" from the passer-by. Such per-
sons, if married men, are generally those who seek
relief from domestic annoyances ; and who, in the words
of one of their poets,

" bend their way

To streams, where far from, care and strife,
From smoky house and scolding wife,
They snare the finny race."

I

I

/(V

Poor men ! they only resort to this melancholy pastime
in order to put their patience to the proof; and fit them
for severer trials; for if the fire be not out and the wife
not dead, on there return home, desperate indeed must
be their condition. Gentle angler, laugh not at those
persons who are thus driven to the water-side, to seek
so desperate a remedy for their woes : fchou knowest
not what may hereafter "be thy own fate. Pray that the
construction of their chimneys, and the temper of their
helpmates, may "be amended; "but if, after a twelve-
month's absence, thou again mark an unhappy man on
the same spot, for pity's sake put the sufferer out of pain.
Taking him by the collar of his coat and the waistband
of his small-clothes, gently cast him into the water — he
will have neither strength nor inclination to resist—
hold him down with the but of his rod for the space of
twenty minutes, and then leave1 him to his beloved
gudgeons. Though thou canst not thus expect to gain
the medal of the Humane Society, thou wilt have the
pleasing consciousness of having relieved a fellow
man,— I almost said a brother angler, but, with such,
brother Bob is the word,— of his cares, and of having
prevented him from committing suicide.

Elderly Anglers , who feel weak in the legs after a mile
or two's walk, and who seat themselves on the bare
ground when fishing, ought to be made acquainted with
the danger which they incur in thus incautiously
resting themselves ; for " however dry it may seem/'
says an experienced bottom fisher, "many, from so
doing, have experienced violent cholics, inflammations

in the bowels, <Scc." To guard against such, disorders, it
appears, from the authority above quoted, that "careful
anglers provide themselves with a piece of cork or
hoard, (which some cover with a piece of carpet.) ....
The cork or hoard provided for a seat, is usually about
eighteen inches long and twelve "broad, which may he
kept and carried in a "basket, with other articles used "by
Anglers." This contrivance, which was good enough in
its day— about ten years since— has, in consequence of
the late rapid strides of science, as applied to the useful
arts, been almost wholly superseded by Macintosh's
patent Caoutchouc Air-cushions, which, when not in-
flated, may be conveniently stowed in the hat-crown,
and, when wanted, can in two minutes be blown out to
the size of a goodly pillow. But, as it is desirable that
the angler should carry with Trim as few things as possi-
ble, beyond his necessary tackle, a further simplification
of this "life preserver" for the sedentary angler, is here
suggested ; being also waterproof, it has all the gene-
ral advantages of the cushion, with, it is presumed,
some little comforts in addition : — to be warm as well as
dry, in the part most exposed to cold and damp, is a
great desideratum with the angler who wishes to enjoy

" pleasure and ease

Together mixed,— sweet recreation."

The proposed improvement has also the advantage
over the cushion in these points, — it is always ready
for use, and is much less liable to be lost. It is rather
surprising that an invention at once so simple and

obvious should have occurred to no bottom-fisher
"before. It consists merely in seating the inexpressibles
of the sedentary angler with caoutchouc, and lining
them, according to size, with two, three, or four bosom
friends— prepared rabbit-skins, so called,— which can be
obtained at any glover or hosier's shop.

Though SirHiimphreyDavy, in his Salmonia, speaks
lightly of the angling of "cockney fishermen, who fish
for roach and dace in the Thames," yet we strongly
suspect that in this school he was first initiated into
the mysteries of the rod and line, and that his love of
fly-fishing for trout and salmon was rather a late one.
He was President of the Royal Society, and he was
ambitious— sero sed serio, late though earnestly— of
ranking among the first of fly-fishers. Vain hope ! No
man who drives out to Denham, "in a light carriage
and pair of horses," to enjoy trout-fishing in apreserved
stream ; or who is carried into a boat on a Highland-
man's back, to fish for salmon on Loch Maree, need
aspire to such a distinction. Of fly-fishing, he may talk,
in season and out of season,

' About it, Goddess, and about it,"

titute — wit
ice to angl

and the excess of drinking a pint of wine

savor much of the precautions
prudent bottom-fisher. Though

sages of great beauty and feeling in the Salmonia, and
many observations on natural ids toiy which are highly
deserving of attention, yet, notwithstanding that it has
had 'an extensive sale, it is not a popular "book. Many
have read it who would not otherwise have looked into
such a hook, from curiosity to see what the President of
the Royal Society, claiming to "be one of the first scien-
tific "bodies in Europe, could say upon such a subject;
and others, who are desirous of reading such works, "be
the author who he may, have perused it with greater
avidity in consequence of the previous reputation of
the author. It is of little use as an angling guide;
and 'though the author appears to have angled in
the Scottish Highlands and in Stiria, he scarcely
appears to have seen any of the people of these coun-
tries, for there is nothing like a characteristic sketch
of popular manners in the "book. The notice of the
" stout Highlander with a powerful tail, or, as we
should call it in England, suite," is a poor affair; and
Mr. Ornither was right in not saying a word about the
Celt being " a pot-fisher, and somewhat hungry," until
his tail was turned, lest he should have soused him
in the pool. The sneer from the Cockney (he could
"be nothing else), one of a party who " have come
nearly a thousand miles for this amusement," at a
Highlandman as a pot-fisher, is really capital Why,
what does the Highlandman feed on?— Salmon, grouse,
and red deer ; and he might as well be laughed at as a
pantry sportsman, because he kills the latter for his
table, as sneered at because he takes his own fish. We

11

have known some trout and salmon fishers in our day,
and the best of them were pot-fishers ; not men who
fished for a living, "but who walked far and waded deep
to "bring home a prime salmon for the kettle, or a creel
full of trout for the frying-pan. The author of Salmonia,
who is not disinclined to let us know that he enjoyed
the acquaintance of a Prince of the Blood Royal, and
had lived with the great — cum magnis vixisse would
form no unapt motto for the hook— is more at home at
Denham, within the sound of "the dressing-bell, which
rings at half-past four," preparatory to dinner at five,
than on the "banks of a Highland loch, where the select
party is annoyed by the sight of a powerful Highland-
man with his tail on. Mountain lochs and streams
cannot be so strictly preserved as two or three miles of
stream in Buckinghamshire ; nor gentlemen anglers in
Boss-shire, so well fenced in from chance intruders jis
by the side of a brook which skirts a gentleman's plea-
sure-grounds within twenty miles of London.

My-fishing is most assuredly that branch of angling
which is the most exciting, and which requires the
greatest skill with the greatest personal exertion to
insure success. Fly-fishing in a preserved water, where
a gentleman, perchance in ball-room dress, alights from
his carriage to take an hour or two's easy amusement,
is no more like fly-fishing in a mountain stream,— where
the angler wanders free to seek his fish where he will
and take them where he can— than slaughtering phea-
sants, in a manner fed at the barn-door, and almost as
tame as the poultry which are regularly bred in the

12

yard, can "be compared to the active exertion of grouse-
shooting. The angler who lives in the neighbourhood
of, or visits even the "best trout streams, has not unfre-
quently to walk miles, if he wishes to bring home a
well filled creel, before he finds it worth his while to
make a cast. When he has reached a place where
trout are plentiful, and disposed to rise, his labours
then only commence. He now and then hooks a large
tro at, which he has to keep in play for some time "before
he can draw Trim to land. The fish has run all the line
out, and with strong effort is making up or down the
stream ; and the angler, "being no longer able to follow
him on the shore — for a tree, a rock, or a row of alders
prevent him,— and knowing that his tackle, which
towards the hook is of the finest gut, will not hold the
trout, and rather than lose the speckled "beauty, three
pounds weight at the least, into the water he goes, up to
his knees, and possibly a yard above, the first step.
And thus he continues leading a sort of amphibious life,
now on land, now in the water, for nearly half a day, till
he has Trilled his creel-full, about the size of a fish-wo-
man's pannier, with some three or four dozen besides,
strung on his garters and suspended over his rod. In
this guise, light-hearted— for he has reason to be proud
of his success — though heavily laden, he takes his way
homeward; and then does he, for the first time, note
how rapidly the hours have fled. He came out about
two in the afternoon, just thinking to try if the trout
would rise, as there had been a shower in the morning
and the water was a little colored; and he now perceives

13

that the sun, which, is shedding a flood of glory through
the rosy clouds that for half an hour "before partly ob-
scured his rays, -will in ten minutes sink "behind the
western hill, although it "be the 21st of June. Involun-
tarily he stands for a while to gaze upon the scene.
Everything around him in the solitude of the "bills — for
there is no human dwelling within five "miles — appears
quiet and composed, "but not sad. The face of nature
appears with a chastened loveliness, induced "by the
departing day; the winds are sleeping, and so are the
birds— lark and linnet, blackbird and thrush: the leaves
of the aspen are seen to move but not heard to rustle :
the bubbling of the stream, as it hurries on over rocks
and pebbles, is only heard. The angler's mind is filled
with unutterable thoughts — with wishes pure, and
aspirations high. !From his heart he pours, as he
turns towards home,

"Thanks to the glorious God of Heaven,
"WMch. sent this summer day."

The exercise which the angler takes when fly-fishing
is no less conducive to the health of his body, than the
influence of pleasing objects contributes to a contented
mind. He is up in the summer morning with the first
note of the lark ; and eie he return at noon he has walk-
ed twenty miles ;

" . . . . By burn and flow'ry brae,
Meadow green and mountain grey."

and has ate nothing since he dispatched a hasty break-
fast of bread r.nd -nnilV about four in the morning;

14

xnor drank, except a glass of Cogniac or G-lenlivat, qua-
lified with a dash of pure spring water from the stone
trough of a way- side well — see it here — on his way
home. When he goes to the water side, as it is more
than likely that he will have to wade, he puts on a pair
of lambswool socks and an extra pair in his pocket.
Should his feet he wet when he leaves off fishing, he
exchanges his wet socks for a pair of dry ones, and
walks home in a state of exceeding great comfort ; the
glass which he took at the well, just after changing his
socks, having sent the "blood tingling to his toe ends.

Delicate, nervous people— such fragile "beings as, in
country phrase, are said to "be " all egg-shells"— who con-
ceive, and very truly, from some deli ghtful papers in
Blackwood by the "old man eloquent," that fly-fishing
must he a most fascinating amusement, and who think
that straightway they can enjoy it in all its charms,
are for the most part wofully disappointed when they
come to make the trial. Fly-fishing is indeed delightful,
but not to them. A poor whimsical thing— poor in
Heaven's "best gift, mens sana in corpore sano,— who

" Is everything by fits and nothing long,"

has persuaded himself that he would enjoy fly-fishing,
and is determined to try the Wharfe, which he is in-
formed affords good trout-fishing, the next time he
visits Harrogate. Previous to -leaving London, he pro-
vides himself with an excellent rod and such lines, of
hair and silk, as would make the mouth of an old angler
water, who spins his own from no better material than

^yALjtei^

isrcauTw^S

15

the hairs of a cow's tail. His flies, though, showy and
well enough, made, are not the kind for a trout, although,
laid within an inch of his nose "by ever so fine a hand.
He supplied "himself at a tackle-makers, who knowing
little of fly-fishing except for chut), provided his custo-
mer with a choice and extensive assortment of moths,
cockchafers, and "bees, with various kinds of large flies,
dressed on hooks large enough to hold any salmon in
Tweed.

Having thus supplied himself with the means, and
qualified himself in the art of killing by a diligent
study of Walton ^enables, B arker , 33 owlker, Williams on,
Mackintosh, Bainbridge, Carrol, and others, who have
treated of fly-fishing, he arrives at Harrogate about the
middle of August, and in the course of a day or two pro-
ceeds to the Wh.arfe in the neighbourhood of Harewood,
to make his first essay. Not wishing to appear as a
novice, and thinking that his knowledge of the science
may fairly place "him on a par with any mere practical
country fly-fisher, who has never read a book on the
subject in his life, he asks no one's advice, but in the
fullness of his own wisdom, sets about putting his
theory into practice — sometimes a rather diflficult affair
as well in fly-fishing as in ploughing by steam. Having
reached the water, which happens to be small and fine,
about ten in the morning, the sun shining bright and
the sky clear, he very properly begins by adjusting his
tackle. He puts his rod together, screws on his wheel
on which he winds the line in a very artist-like man-
ner, leading the end of it through the rings on the rod.

He now draws forth ids "book of flies, and after selecting
a foot-length to which three likely flies are attached—
to wit, for the stretcher a good, heavy, red-ended "bee, to
make the line carry well out; for the lower dropper a
cockchafer, and for the upper, a very fine grey mo th —
he loops it to his line. Being resolved not to attempt
throwing far at first, he only lets about nine yards
of line off, and waving his rod with a graceful turn of
the arm, he meditates a throw ; and now, away the line
goes ! — No, not exactly yet ; for the "bee has "been so well
counterfeited that it appears to have "been attracted "by
the flower of the thistle to whose stalk it is sticking so
fast. The "bee is now disengaged from the thistle, "but
the moth shows a partiality for "broad-cloth, and ad-
heres most pertinaciously to the collar of the gentle-
man's coat, which he is obliged to put off "before he can
free himself from the annoying insect But he has pro-
fited already from experience, and discovered that the
surest mode of throwing out the line straight "before
you, is first to lay it on the ground straight "behind, and
then, taking your rod in "both hands, and holding it
directly over your right shoulder, deliver the flies right
in front, "by a sort of over-head stroke. After this fashion
does he make his first cast, and swash go the flies into
the water, as if a trio of wild ducks had stooped there
in full flight; and had there "been a trout near, he
most surely would have been killed-— with fright. For
an hour he continues his unsuccessful practice ; but
consoles himself with the thought that he will have
the more to take next day. Next day comes, another

17

WFA

w

after that, "but still he has caught no trout, though he
has lost many flies. On the fourth day it rains, and
in the forlorn hope of filling his "basket while the -water
is rising, he ventures, without umbrella, to brave a
shower — hut still without success; he catches nothing
"but a cold. The same night he has his feet put in
warm water, and takes a "basin of gruel when he goes
to "bed. How unlike the angler proper, who has the
same day "been fishing in the Tweed, between Yair-
bridge and Melrose. He has caught four grilses, and
as many dozen of trouts, from three in the afternoon
till seven; and about eight o'clock, to save time and
trouble, takes both dinner and supper at once; and
afterwards enjoys, with Capt. Clutterbuck, a bottle
of wine, drinks three tumblers of toddy, smokes two
cigars, and retires to bed about eleven, to rise, like
a giant refreshed, at six the next morning.

But to attend to the progress of our amateur angler's
disorder.— The next morning he finds that the cold
which he has caught when trying for trout, is not dis-
posed to leave him ; so he takes his coffee and reads
the newspaper in bed. He gets up about two in the
afternoon, rather hoarse, with a slight tickling cough,
but dares not stir out, as a drizzling rain is falling.
Towards evening he becomes fidgety, and wants some-
thing to read ; and looking into his trunk for a book,
lays his hands on Walton, which, in savage mood, he
throws to the other side of the room, wishing the good
old man, and all writers on angling— whom he considers

D

as the authors of his disorder, by tempting him to try
fly-fishing— at aplace where it is to "be hoped no honest
angler ever will he found. At night his gruel is repeated,
"but without any "beneficial effect; for the next morning
he finds himself much worse, with rather an alarming
pain in his side and breast. The doctor now is sent
for, who thinks he perceives inflammation of the lungs;
and should his prognostic be wrong, his practice is safe;
for within three hours after he of the golden-headed
cane has touched his fee, the patient has been cupped
between the shoulders, had a blister placed upon his
chest, taken a bolus, and swallowed three draughts.
He has, however, received an assurance from the doc-
tor that he is in no danger, that is, provided he takes
regularly the medicine which is sent him, has the
blister renewed on the third day, and the cupping re-
peated at the same time. At the end of a fortnight the
doctor pronounced him convalescent; and at the end
of a month, declared that he might venture, by easy
stages, to return to London. The access of inflamma-
tion abated his fit of fly-fishing, and he has not since
been visited with another attack. Angling he now
abominates, together with all who follow or teach it;
and, should he ever be so fortunate as to obtain a seat
in Parliament, he intends to bring in a bill to utterly
abolish its practice throughout the British empire.
It is not a mere wish, without experience and without
perseverance, that will convert a person who has
scarcely seen a trout-stream in his life into an expert
fly-fisher. For the perfect enjoyment of angling, there

w .

19

ia stall something required besides dexterity in the
management of the rod, skill in the choice of flies, and
acquaintance -with the haunts offish, and the localities
of the stream. In addition to these, there must be a
warm yet enduring love of angling, even though the
diligent pursuit of it be occasionally attended with no
reward. The mind of the angler should be fully sen-
sible of the beauties of the scenery -which are presented
to him in his excursions by lake and stream ; and sus-
ceptible of the heart-healing impressions which the
splendor of the rising or setting sun, the rugged gran-
deur of rocks and craggy mountains, the milder charms
of corn-fields, meadows, and woody slopes, never fail
to convey to him whose better feelings are nob over,
layed by the filthy lucre of Mammon, nor corrupted by
the principles of the modern school of heartless, coun-
terfeit philosophy, which assumes to itself, par excel-
lence, the title of " Utilitarian," and has discarded the
old fashioned virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

"For what availes to brooke or lake to goe,
With handsome rods and hookes of every sort,
.Well-twisted lines, and many trinckets moe,
To find the fish within their wat'ry fort,
If that the minde be not contented so,

But wants those gifts that should the rest support."

CHAPTER II.

DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES OF THE THAMES, AND
ITS TRIBUTARY STREAMS, THE KENNET, THE
COLNE, THE WANDLE, AND THE LEA.

THE author of " Salmonia," some six or seven years
ago, declared that the glory of fly-fishing had departed
from many of the streams of Scotland; but Christopher
North, a much higher authority , writing within this pre-
sent year, gives to all anglers a comfortable assurance
that, though there is what he, " Christopher, and a
Scotchman," calls first-rate angling, " in few, if any, of
the dear Engli sh lakes ;" and though, with your own
tackle, you may angle in Crummock water, " with amo-
rous ditties all a summer's day," and never get a rise ;
'tis never so in the lochs of Scotland. But all living
creatures/' he thus continues, " are in a constant state
of hunger in this favored country ; so bait your hook
with anything edible— it matters not what— snail, spi-
der, fly— and angle for what you may, you are sure to
catch it— almost as certainly as the accent or the itch."
In addition to this express testimony of one so well
qualified to give an opinion on this subject, we shall
just quote an account of the Ettrick Shepherd's suc-
cess, in little more than a mere en-passant whup at a
couple of streams, the Meggat and the Fruid, when

21

journeying, on a pleasant April day, from his own
home on Yarrow to visit a few friends who had pitched
their tent, on a gipsying excursion, in the Fairy's
Cleugh, on the south-eastern borders of Lanarkshire.
We shall not attempt to injure, "by translating, the
Shepherd's delightful Doric, "but quote his own words.
" I couldna ken how ye micht be fennin' in the Tent
for fish, so I thocht I might as weel tak a whup at the
Meggat. How they lap! I filled ma creel afore the
dew-melt; and as its out o' the poor o' ony man wi'
a heart to gie owre fishin' in the Meggat durin' a tak, I
kent by the sun it was nine-hours ; and by that time I
had filled a' ma pouches, the braid o' the tail o' some o'
them wrappin' again ma elbows." The poet having
over-ridden his horse, to make up for lost time, is
obliged to wait till he gets second wind, and not to be
idle, in the meantime, he trys another stream. "I just
thocht I wad try the Fruid wi' the fiee, and put on a
professor. The Fruid 's fu' o' sma' troots, and I sune
had a string. I could na hae had about me, at this
time, ae way and ither, in ma several repositories,
string and a', less than thretty dizzen o' troots." Now
this is angling indeed, and enough to tempt an elderly
Benedict, who manages to kill two brace and a half in
a week's constant angling in the Colne, to desert house
and home for a month's angling in the Meggat and
the Fruid.

The effect produced on the mind of the angling
public by such papers, in Blackwood, as Christopher
at the Lakes, Christopher in his Sporting Jacket, Loch

Awe, and many others, imbued with a similar spirit,
and bearing the impress of the same master hand, is
extremely questionable, so far as the general interests
of society are regarded. They have unsettled the minds
of many. By a kind of fascination, they have allured
the elderly gentleman whose annual summer trip
never extended beyond Margate, to venture on a long
journey to attend the Winder-mere Regatta, trace the
course of the Duddon, or ascend Skiddaw, instead of
viewing Doggett's coat and badge rowed for on the
Thames, wandering by the Regent's Canal, or climbing
Piimrose-hill,to see Mr. Sadler's balloon go up; and even
lawyers may now be seen, during the long vacation,
angling for trout on Lock Awe, who formerly confined
themselves to trolling for pike — fresh-water attorneys-T-
in the river Lea. From Midsummer to Michaelmas the
lakes are perfectly swarming with visitors, while trout
have, in the same ratio, become scarce; and beds are
scarcely to be had for love or money. It is in vain that
the " contemplative man" endeavours to enjoy his medi-
tations alone. If he ascend Skiddaw, he overtakes and
passes a slow-paced, shortwinded company toiling up
the steep ; he meets a second coming down, who have
a match against time, and intend completing a tour 01
the lakes in four days ; and the first sight that greets
him, when he reaches the top, is a family party of
thirteen, engaged in eating a family dinner— legs oi
mutton and trimmings — which boots and the hostler
have carried up in a clothes-basket. Thinking to find
something like solitude in the desert, he takes the

A
$

lonely road to Buttermere upBorrowdale; tout still lie
cannot escape the lakers, who cross him. at every turn
of the dale. Three "boats have just discharged their
living freight at the head of the lake as he passes Low-
dore; under the lee of the Bowder stone sits a Cam-
bridge youth, who is studying for honors, with his
tutor at his side, cramming him with choice morsels
from Vince and Wood's— alas ! how unlike Kay's, of
the Albion — dry and insipid, though solid course. On
the top, on a three-legged portable stool, is seated an
artist sketching ; and at the base is a member of the
Geological Society, hammer in hand, chipping off spe-
cimens, which his lady carefully gathers up and depo-
sits in her reticule — the future foundations of another
new theory of the earth. At Hosthwaite greater annoy-
ance awaits him ; for there does he behold, in that here-
tofore quiet and secluded spot, a party of young men
and maidens quadrilling it to the melancholy waih'ngs
of a pale-faced young gentleman's flute ; and on arriving
at Buttermere, tired, and out of humour with himself,
the lakes, and their visitors, he finds that he can only
be lodged in a double-bedded room, where he is enter-
tained all night with a trombone solo, from the nose
of a stout gentleman who occupies the other bed, and
whose double-base quaver, — which is a repeat, con stre-
pito, every half hour,— he vainly hopes is the effect of
strangulation. Finding no delightful solitude out of
doors, nor rest in his bed, he returns to town by the
1st of September; and finds, in the deserted walks and

24

drives of Hyde Park, that freedom from intrusion
which he in vain sought among the hills.

The evil of those papers is not confined to tempting
sober, quiet people, who,

" Along the cool sequestered vale of life
Have kept the noiseless tenor of theirway,"

—have walked in cork soles by the shady side of the
Strand or Fleet Street all their lives — to set out on a
wild-goose chase after the picturesque, the sublime,
and the beautiful, among hills and lakes, and then
leaving them, as a Will o' the Wisp does his followers,
beguiled and laughed at. It extends to others, recall-
ing scenes which they can never again visit, and ex-
citing longings which can never be gratified. The
native of Cumberland or Westmoreland, the man of
pleasant Teviotdale, or the child of the mist from
the Highlands,

" Absent long and distant far,"

from the hills and streams which in boyhood he loved,
who has been immured for years in a Babel of brick
and mortar, is seized, on reading those papers, with a
species of calenture. Recollections of the happy days
of his boyhood come over his mind as he reads the
page, where, in

" words that breath,"

the faithful picture is pourtrayed. The memory of
dear, departed days is recalled, and a full tide of plea-

25

y\

sure bursts upon his heart, to be succeeded, when
the enchanting vision has passed, by a corresponding
depression, when he reflects how small is the chance
of his ever visiting his native place again; but that,

" Getting and spending,"

he is doomed to wear out his life in a round which
affords little pleasure from reflection or from hope :

"He sees

A mountain ascending, a vision of trees ;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river rolls on through the vale of Cheapside.

He looks, and his heart is in Heaven : but they fade,
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade ;
The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise,
And the colours have all passed away from his eyes/'

THE THAMES.

But to give over thinking or speaking of lakes,
mountains, and trout-streams, far in the "North
Countree," let us take a view of the Thames, and two
which the angler who lives
not afforded

maggot at one end, and a fool at the other/' Sec.; with
occasionally a handful of dirt or stone coming in the
water or on your head, renders angling anything hut
an amusement.

Though Richmond is not famed as an angling
station, yet it is "beautiful exceedingly," with its
bridge, its mount, and its park; and several times,
both above the bridge and below, have we enjoyed
excellent sport here; — five in a punt, "the more the
merrier,"— pulling up dace, roach, and perch, till the
•joint stock of the company amounted, in point of num-
ber and weight, if not of size and value, to something
considerable, and enough to make a drift of bottom-
fishers vain. In going towards Richmond Hill may be
seen a votive tablet, in front of some alms-houses,
founded by Bryan Duppa, bishop of Winchester, dedi-
cated in courtly, though scarcely reverend style, " Deo
et Carolo, — to God and King Charles," by the above
prelate. A conjunction which, more especially if we
bear in mind the depraved character of the King,
Charles II., savours a little of profaneness on the part
of the bishop, and would lead us to infer that he held
both in equal fear and equal honor ; and that he could
occasionally make a sacrifice of his religion to his loy-
alty. The view from Richmond Hill is truly delightful,
and though it has often been celebrated in verse by
poets, and on canvass by painters, and though some

of each class hav

the modesty of nature,"

or colours, has been abl<

their delineation "o'erstepped
no one, either in prose, verse,
to improve it, or make it seem

27

more lovely than it is. At the foot of the hill lies a
"sunny spot of greenery," surrounded "by a "belt of
trees extending to the river, which here flows in a
bend, graceful as the arched neck of one of the swans,
which, with easy motion, are cleaving its waters :

"(Hide gently, thus for ever glide,
O Thames ! that Anglers all may see
As lovely visions by thy side
As now, fair river, come to me.
O glide, fair stream ! for ever so,
Thy quiet soul on all "bestowing,
Till all our minds for ever flow,
As thy deep waters now are flowing."

Looking up and across the stream,— on whose waters
the heavy barge is seen slowly ascending, or the light
wherry shooting swiftly down — corn-fields, woodlands,
and meadows are perceived, blended in pleasing va-
riety, and extending in a gradually softened tone of
colour, till the prospect is bounded by a range of
gently swelling "hills. The poet Thompson,— whose
beautiful description of fly-fishing, in the " Seasons,"
leads the reader to conclude that he must, ere he left
his native streams, have been an adept in the art—
lived at Richmond; but that he was accustomed to
angle, during his residence here, we have not been
able to learn. From his indolent habits,— eating peaches
from the tree, with his hands in his breeches pockets,
—we are inclined to think that he did not.

Following the course of the river, the next place
above Richmond is Twickenham; between which place
and Tedding ton Lock, considerable quantities of roach,

dace, and gudgeons are taken, as well as perch', ruff, and
"barbel, during the season. Pope, as is known to every-
one, lived at Twickenham; and once when rowing past
the house, which is still standing, much, enlarged and
modernized, the waterman called our attention to Pope's
" willa." Having heard much of the willow which the
hard is said to have planted with his own hand, and
cuttings of which were sent to her imperial majesty
Catherine of Russia, we were wishful to obtain "both
a sight and a slip ; and desired the man to point out,
among a dozen others which shaded the margin of the
stream, the identical tree. " Tree, master," replied he,
"ita'n'tno tree, "but a house: that ere is it, what we 're
now a-passing right in front of." We now perceived
that, from his having pronounced willa instead of villa,
we had mistaken a house for a tree.

From Twickenham to Hampton Court is a pleasant
walk of three miles, the road leading for upwards of a
•mile through Bushey Park, between a noble avenue
of lofty trees; but the most preferable course for the
angler to take, who wishes to enjoy two or three days'
fishing between Hampton Court and Richmond, is to
proceed direct. to the former place, and thence fish
downwards by Thames Ditton, Kingston, and Twick-
enham, to Richmond Bridge. This part of the Thames,
though scarcely affording so good angling as between
Hampton Court and Chertsey, is far superior in pic-
turesque beauty; and he who has sailed down it on
a fine summer evening— when the setting sun, casting
a farewell glance through the rosy clouds, sheds a

29

mellow glow upon the waters, and when all ia so still
that you may hear the clank of the boatman's oar for a
mile— notes it at the time with a white stone; and
ever after, as often as it recurs to his mind, dwells
upon its recollection with pleasure.

A mile above Hampton Court lies Hampton, a plea-
sant village, in the neighbourhood of which there is
generally as good angling for gudgeons, dace, roach,
perch, chub, ruff, and barbel, as the Thames affords ;
and the same may be said of Walton, Shepperton, and
Cherts ey. About thirty-two years ago, the late Sir
William Hamilton used frequently to visit Hampton,
for the sake of angling in the Thames, and Nelson occa-
sionally took a seat in the punt beside him, and
looked on while the old ambassador pursued his sport.
Laleham and Staines, yet higher up the river, are also
visited by anglers from London. In fact there is
scarcely a village in which there is a decent public-
house, on each side of the Thames from Hichmond to
Henley, that is not visited by anglers from London
in search of their favorite amusement.

From Staines to Windsor, is a walk of six miles,
through Egham, and across Runnemede, so famed in
English history as the place where the barons obtained
from King John, a reluctant signature to Magna
Charta. On the 29th of August last, we took this road,
intending to look through Windsor Castle, and have
two or three hours' barbel-fishing between Eton and
Datchett. The sun had not been up more than an
hour when we crossed the famous mead, which, in

30

consequence of Egham races, was partly covered with
tents, as if another army had encamped there: and
we heard, with something like surprise and incredu-
lity, from a countryman who was going to his work,
that one of the stewards was a namesake of a distin-
guished character in John's reign — Hubert de Burgh.
A vision of Queen Constance, and young Arthur, and
Falconbridge, and Cardinal Pamphilo, with the rest of
the principal characters of Shakspeare's play, came
across our mind; and we were only aroused from our
reverie on beholding the flag flying from the round
tower of Windsor Castle, which, lighted "by the morn-
ing sun, rose proudly above the old oaks in the Park.
Not only an angler, from a day-dream, "but

" St. George might waken from the dead,
To see gay England's banner fly!"

About half a mile below Eton there is good
fishing for barbel, in the eddies close by the bank,
and there also trouts are sometime a caught, from
two to three pounds weight, but not so frequently as
induce an angler to try expressly for them. An old
angler, who fishes there regularly, caught four this
last season, which had taken his worm when fishing
for barbel.

Considering the opportunities afforded for angling
in the Thames, and the worthy example set by a
former provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, it
is not surprising that the Eton boys should be lovers
of the pleasing art. A good example once set, in a

31

place of education, long continues to toe followed; and
one generation emulates another, in the cultivation of
a science or art which has taken deep root in an uni-
versity or college, under the care of those whose me-
mory is honored. Oxford produces men upon whom
the Muses smile, and whose minds are imbued with
the poetry and the eloquence of Greece and Rome;
and Cambridge sends forth her sons skilful to ex-
pound the problems of Euclid and Archimedes, to
analyse the complicated relations of numbers and
curves, to observe the revolutions of the planets, and
calculate the distance of the stars. Sir Henry Wotton,
who died in 1639, was appointed provost of Eton by
James I. in reward for his services when ambassador
at Venice. In one of his journeys through Germany
he inscribed in an album an indiscreet Latin version
of a good English pun: "An ambassador is a person
of honour sent to lie abroad, for the good of his
country." Sometime afterwards this sentence, which
has not in the Latin version the pair of handles which
it has in English, was extracted by a scurrilous "lite-
rary Ishmaelite" of the day, the Jesuit Scioppius, who
published it, with a bitter commentary, as the text of
the deliberate policy of the British court. James,
who was much annoyed by the aspersions which were
thus cast upon him, required from Sir Henry an ex-
planation of the circumstance; and on being made
acquainted with the punning English original, and
being assured that the writing in the album was in-
serted merely as a jest, he forgave the ambassador,

after warning him to "be more careful of scattering his
wit in future. Sir Henry, — whose life is written "by his
friend good old Izaak Walton,— when he was upwards
of seventy years of age, composed, "as he sate quietly
in a summer's evening on a bank a fishing," those
verses on the return of Spring which are inserted in
the first chapter of Walton's " Complete Angler." Sir
Henry, after having lived long in the "busy world, and
seen much of the intrigue, the restlessness, and the
anxiety of a court life, declared that he had at length
learnt: " Animas sapientiores fieri quiescendo." A truth
which doubtless the calm pleasures of angling very
materially contributed to impress upon his mind.

Proceeding up the Thames, Maidenhead, Marlow,
and Henley afford excellent accommodation for the
angler; and the .Thames, in the neighbourhood of all
the three places, is well stocked with fish. The river
near Henley, presents a beautiful expanse of water,
and the amusement of rowing and boat-sailing, in ad-
dition to angling, may be enjoyed here to great advan-
tage. The surrounding country is also extremely
pleasant; and between Windsor and Oxford we are
acquainted with no place where the angler can spend
a week with greater pleasure.

From the village of Dorchester, where a small
stream, called the Tame, runs into the Thames, the
river up to Oxford, and for some miles above, is com-
monly called the Isis. This name, according to Dr.
Aikin, is only the ancient name of O use latinized, and
unknown to the inhabitants of its banks, who call the

m.

^^r-

33

principal river the Thames, up to its very head. Large
trout and carp are occasionally taken in the deep
pools above the lock, a~bout a mile to the west of
Dorchester.

The "banks of the Thames, in the vicinity of Dor-
chester, afford better opportunities of fishing from
the shore than in the neighbourhood of Hampton,
Richmond, or Henley; and there the patient angler,
who combines the utile et dulce, by obtaining a two
days' supply of fish in following an amusement
which he loves, may be observed, seated on the
shore, committing havoc among the scaly fry; and
while eating by snatches a frugal dinner, brought him
by his little son, still keeping an eye to his rod.

The village of Pangbourn, situated near a small
stream of the same name, a short distance from the
Thames, and about five miles above Beading, is a
good angling station. Here are two respectable inns ;
and a person of the name of Ford, who is well ac-
quainted with the best fishing-ground in the neigh-
bourhood, is always ready to lend his services, for
a small reward, to the angler who is a stranger to the
place. My-fishing may be pursued here with suc-
cess from .April to the end of August, in the stream
which runs past the village ; and, should the angler
be unsuccessful in this, he can take revenge on the
dace, roach, and perch of the Thames, of which there
is, near to Pangbourn, no scarcity.

The Isis, as the main stream is called, and the
Cherwell, in the neighbourhood of Oxford, contain

34

pike, roach, and perch, in great abundance ; and afford
the young collegians who are still in statu pupillari
ample opportunity of gradually improving them-
selves, till, after a season's fishing in Scotland, Wales,
or Ireland, they "become qualified to take J an M.A.'s
—Master Angler's— degree. One of the patriarchs of
angling, the venerable Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, was
also principal of Brazen-nose College, Oxford; and no
angler who visits that city should omit calling to see
his portrait, which is still preserved there. It will do
his heart good to see the old worthy, even on canvass,
" leaning on a desk, with his Bible before him, and
on one hand of him his lines, hooks, and other tack-
ling, lying in a round; and on his other hand his
angle-rods of several sorts." Dr. Gilbert Sheldon,
archbishop of Canterbury, and, prior to his advance-
ment to that dignity, warden of All Soul's, was the
founder of the Theatre at Oxford,— where installa-
tions, the public acts, and the annual commemora-
tion are held, — and, according to Walton, most skil-
ful in angling for umber and barbel. A living mem-
ber of this University, a double M. A.— both of arts
and angling— and who, had he been in orders, would
most assuredly have been on the bench, may with
confidence take the stream against any fly-fisher,
whether amateur or professor, in the three king-
doms.

35

THE KENNET.

The trouts of the Kennet, — a river which rises not
far from Marlbro' in Wiltshire, and after passing
through Berkshire, by Hungerford, Newbury, and
Reading, runs into the Thames, — are deservedly cele-
brated "both for size and quality. That part of the
water which is common, unfortunately for the an-
gler, is much netted; and the rest, which runs
through gentlemen's grounds, is mostly preserved.
In the neighbourhood of Reading, trouts are scarce,
and it is not worth any person's while to visit this
town, for the sake of angling in the Kennet. About
Newbury they are more plentiful; and he who can
throw lightly a long line, may here, during the
months of May, June, and July, in the course of a
day's fishing, take a dozen or a dozen and a half of
trout, — veritable yellow fins, which might excite the
admiration of a North-countryman, and would weigh

^

not admit of netting, near Newbury, last summer,
and though frequently tempted, both by night and
by day, with the most alluring flies and killing
baits, he continued uncaught when we heard from
an angling friend at Newbury, on the 2d September,
who wrote to say that the day before he had shot
five brace of birds, and in the evening killed just
half as many trout.

The householders of Hungerford, nine miles
above Newbury, have the right, by virtue of a
grant from John of Gaunt it is said, of fishing in
the Kennet, for a certain distance above and below
the town. The water, to the extent of their privilege,
is at present rented by a person of the name of
Rozier, who nets it, and gains a living by selling
the fish. A stranger, however, who wishes to try a
cast here, may obtain liberty on paying a small sum
to the renter. The town liberty, upwards, extends
to the grounds of Mr. Pearce, of Chilton Lodge; and
his property again, higher up, is joined by that of
General Popham, of Littlecote. The fish are strictly
preserved by these gentlemen; and no person is
allowed to angle in their respective waters without
leave. The skilful fly-fisher, who is so fortunate as to
obtain permission to fish to the extent of both these
gentlemen's- liberties, will have little reason to envy
those who go farther for their amusement, and per-
chance fare worse. Gay, the poet, who was also a
fly-fisher, is said to have frequently angled in this
stream, when staying at Amesbury, in Wiltshire,

37

the seat of his patron the Duke of Queensbury. The
Kennet is a clear stream, running over a "bottom of
chalk and gravel, in some places weedy, "but never
like many streams in the north, hurrying with noisy
speed over a bottom of large pebbles or fragments of
rock. In the neighbourhood of Hungerford, where
the face of the country is more diversified with
rising ground than lower down, it is likely to remind
the angler, who has fished in that stream, of the
Derwent, between Malton and East Ayton, in York-
shire.

A small stream, called the Lambourn, which
runs into the Kennet below Newbury, occasionally
affords good angling ; and we have heard of some
large trout being killed between Newbury and
Eastbury. But this is a capricious stream, which,
having its source in the chalky wolds above the
village of Lambourn, is — like another which we
are acquainted with, in a different part of the coun-
try, but rising in and traversing a similar soil,— in
some seasons almost dry. When it is full, we have
heard an angler say, who knows both streams, that
he prefers it to the Kennet. About twenty years
ago, from a pond at Welford House, on the banks
of the Lambourn, the seat of Mr. Hoblyn, a trout is
said to have been taken which weighed twenty-four
pounds. We have had no opportunity of ascertain-
ing the truth of this report, but we very much sus-
pect its accuracy; and are disposed to think that
those who weighed this trout must have used the

same set of weights and scales as were used to
weigh. Colonel Thornton's large tench, which was
taken at the "bottom of an old well at Thornville
Royal, about thirty years ago.

THE COLNE.

The river Colne, between Longford and Burr's
Mill, up the stream, a distance of four miles, contains
fine trout, and would afford excellent sport to the
fly-fisher were it not so much netted. But here,
except in the neighbourhood of two or three mills,
the fish are never allowed a week's grace ; and it is
only an angler who lives on the spot, and has
opportunity of observing where the trouts lie, that
has any chance of success. Large trouts are some-
times taken here with the fly; and, in June last, a
prime one, weighing seven pounds and a quarter, was
caught near Longford, by a gentleman of the neigh-
bourhood, alter an hour's struggle. Each householder
in Harmondsworth, a village a short distance above
Longford, has the privilege of netting the river
three times a week; and the copyholders of the
manor of Drayton, two miles higher up, have the
same liberty. Each person may take with him to
the water as many strangers as he pleases, and
allow them to use his nets, provided he remain with
them; and sometimes the mortified angler, just as

he comes in sight of the pool where he had ascer-
tained, the night before, that some prime trouts were
lying, perceives that a party of strangers— "both to
the parish and the love of angling — are engaged in
netting it, •with the native Goth who leads them on,
standing dry-shod on the "bank, directing their ope-
rations.

" O that some fowler passing by
Would with his long duck-gun let fly,
Hit them between the hip and thigh,
And drive them from the water!"

In the neighbourhood of two of the mills above
j <£\ Drayton the water is preserved, and permission to
angle is not easily obtained. Below Burr's Mill, in
particular, there are at all times fine trout; and
the angler who should obtain leave to fish from
here uninterruptedly to Longford, would seldom
have reason to complain of want of success. The
greatest inconvenience which attends the fly-fisher
in the neighbourhood of London, is that he is mostly
confined to a limited space, and has not opportunity
of trying a sufficient extent of water; while, in dis-
tant parts of the county, he has the stream free for
miles, with ample scope to fish in rapid, pool, or
slack, as he may find the fish disposed to rise. For
often, as is known to every fly-fisher, trout may be
caught in pools, where the water runs with a gentle
current and rather deep, when they will not look at
the fly where the water runs more rapidly, and

40

where, at other times, the angler is most certain to
meet with success. The fly-fisher who is confined to
apiece of water of one character, though well stocked
with trout, — for instance, where the stream runs in
an uniformly gentle current for a couple of miles,— will
be more frequently disappointed of his sport than
one who fishes a stream of greater variety, though
the fish may not "be so plentiful. This part of the
Colne also contains pike, roach, perch, and the finest
dace of any stream within twenty miles of London.
The Trout Inn, at Drayton, is frequently visited by
anglers from the metropolis, for the sake of pike-
fishing, which is here at the best from the middle
of September to the middle of November. The coun-
try is flat and low, and the breadth of a field is com-
monly the extent of the prospect. Except the ivy-
mantled tower of Drayton church, there is not much
to fill a leaf in the Angler's sketch-book, to make
amends for a light creel

Denham, a village near the Colne, about two
miles from Uxbridge, has, from Sir Humphry Davy's
account, in the " Salmonia," of his angling there,
acquired a high character in the annals of fly-fishing ;
but there is neither free nor subscription water,
and a day's fishing can only be obtained by per-
mission of some one of the gentlemen through
whose property it flows, and by whom it is strictly
interdicted to intruders. Besides the Colne, another
stream runs past Denham, through the grounds
of Mr. Drummond, at Denham Fishery; and of

41

Mr. Way, Denham Place— now occupied by Joseph
Bonaparte, Count Survilliers, waiting, it is pre-
sumed, until the shuffling of the political cards of
Europe shall afford him. an opportunity of playing
a trump, and taking the lead either in France or
Spain. This, though a small, is a capital trout-stream,
and affords excellent angling, as the fish are both-
plentiful and large. It was a rule with the late Mr.
Drummond, that all trout hooked in his water under
two pounds should be set free again. This we think
rather too strict, and are of opinion that no trout
weighing one pound should be returned to the
water, let him be caught where he may. Two-
pounders are not so numerous anywhere, that
we know of, as to justify a prudent angler in libe-
rating one of less weight, in order that he may grow
bigger, and return when he has attained the proper
size to be caught again. For an illustration of this
opinion the reader is referred to the fable of the
"Angler and the Little Fish." On this stream, as on
the Wandle, the May-fly does not make its appear-
ance. Denham Court, on the east of the village of
Denham, which, when in the possession of Mr.
Thompson, used to be visited by the Duke of York
and Sir Humphrey Davy, for the sake of fly-fishing
in the Colne, is now the property of Mr. Hamlet,
the silversmith, who frequently allows gentlemen
who are known or introduced to him, a day's fishing
in his grounds. For those who are so fortunate as
to obtain the entree of those preserves, there is

.)

fc

42

certainly no water within thirty miles of London
•where so many trouts are to "be caught. Higher up
the Colne, in the neighbourhood of Bickmans worth,
is a subscription water, which affords tolerably good
fly-fishing; but the trouts are not so large there as in
the lower part of the stream.

THE WANDLE.

A small stream, which contributes to form the
Wandle, at Carshalton, runs through Croydon; and in
a pond at Waddon-mill head, about a mile below that
town, are some large trout; but though the angler should
get leave to fish for them, it would be but waste of
time to make the attempt, as they are only to be
caught by netting or with night-lines. They are too
full-fed,— probably with the small worms from the
mud generated by the offscourings of Croydon,— and
too shy, to take anything that the angler has to
offer them in daylight. We were standing one May
morning, by the bank a little below the mill, con-
jecturing if there might be a trout in the water which
runs from the mill-tail, and were preparing our
tackle, for the purpose of ascertaining the fact, when
a miller came up, of whom we made enquiry. " 0
yes," was his answer, " there are trouts in this water,
two or three; and for this last fortnight ever so
many people have been here from Croydon, trying

to catch them." Not wishing to deprive a whole
parish of amusement for the season, we replaced on
our hat the triplet of flies, which would have tempted
any trout to take them,— and die with pleasure,— whose
hours of rest and of feeding had for a fortnight been
interrupted by frightful visions of winged and fea-
thered things, neither insect nor bird, with now and
then a devil proper, thrown at him from something
like a hop-pole.

The stream having increased considerably in its
course from Croydon, passes the village of Bedding-
ton, and runs through Beddington Park, where the
water is preserved, and contains plenty of trout,
which, escaping from time to time, afford an excel-
lent supply to the subscription water of Mr. Brown,
at Wallington, a short distance lower down. The
number of subscribers to this water is limited to
fifteen, at three guineas each, from the 1st of May to
the 1st of September. At. Carshalton it is increas-
ed by several streams, which rise from a chalky
soil near that village; and from thence to where it
runs into the Thames, a little below Wandsworbh,
it is called the Wandle. " The Wandall Trout," says
W. Folkingham, Gent, in his Art of Survey, 1630, "is
held in high esteeme ;" and we, in 1834, with the taste
of one of them yet on our palate, declare that they
deserve to be so still. One of the principal springs
which form the Wandle, rises in the grounds of Mr.
Reynolds at Carshalton. The spring-head is arched
over; but at the head of the pond into which it runs,

several little jets may be seen bubbling up through
the sand and gravel at the "bottom. The water of
this spring, -which is soft, and pleasant to the taste
is never discoloured "by heavy rains, but in all sea-
sons flows equally clear. During the summer-
months its quantity is diminished, though in a very
small degree, unless in seasons of extreme drought.
Within three hundred yards of its source, it turns
the wheel of a large mill. A spring at Carshalton,
neatly covered with stone, and provided with an iron
ladle,— for the benefit of the poor and thirsty traveller
who has not wherewithal to purchase a draught of
ale,— is called by the inhabitants "Boleyn's Well,"
in consequence, as we were informed by an old lady,
of Anne Boleyn, when she was residing at Bedding-
ton Park, always having her tea made with water
from this spring. There is most certainly a mistake
in this with respect to the tea, which, as any gentle-
man who has read the Penny Magazine knows, was
not introduced into this country until upwards of a
hundred years after Anne Boleyn was beheaded. As,
in her days, court ladies and maids of honor scarcely
ever drank water, but diluted their solid meals with
a flaggon of double ale, or a quart of Gascony, it is
most likely that Anne used this water— which is
said to be powerful in improving the complexion— to
wash herself.

Between Wallington and Mitcham there is good

there is

45

ing here •without leave. Perhaps the "best part of the
Wandle for fly-fishing is that which runs through
Sir John Lubbock's grounds; near Mitcham, where
the water, it is almost needless to say, is preserved,
and leave to angle only granted to the friends of the
owner. In the lower part of the stream, where the
liberty of Angling is less restrained, trout almost
wholly disappear, while dace and roach "become more
abundant.

THE LEA,

The River Lea is, within twenty miles of London,
more frequently flogged, or rather whipped, "by
"Brother Bobs" than any other stream of similar
extent in the kingdom. From year to year the fish
have no rest; in spring, summer, autumn, and win-
ter, you will always meet with some one fishing in
the Lea, except when it is frozen over. Nor have
the fish even the benefit of a Sunday's rest ; but on
that day, between June and October, are more espe-
cially annoyed by the drifts of self-styled "hanglers,"
who come from London to enjoy a Sunday's fishing.
Here may be seen Jews, Gentiles, and Quakers,— all
sects are tolerated on the Lea, provided the sub-
scription be paid, — in friendly neighbourhood, enjoy-
ing their favorite sport, and forgetting, at least for
one day in the week, their religious differences.
The epithet broad-brim scarcely can be applied with

46

propriety to the hat of the young " Friend," who is
moved to absent himself from the meeting for the
sake of fishing in the Lea; and his coat, cucumber
no longer, is distinguished by the style of its cut,
showing the skill of the " artiste," who could thus
equip a quaker in a garment of the first fashion,
without subjecting him to expulsion from the
Society. Those who reside in a distant part of the
country, but more especially the people of Scotland,
will be surprised to learn that on a Sunday, during
the summer, there is more angling in the Lea, from
Stratford to Broxbourn, than on any other day in
the week. Then may be seen persons of all ages,
from the urchin just breeched to the old and slip-
pered pantaloon, practising angling in all its cockney
varieties; whipping, dabbing, bobbing, and bottom-
fishing, with flies, maggots, paste, and worms. The
gentleman who is well to do in the world leaves
his wife and family, and drives to Broxbourn or
Hoddesdon in his "one-horse shay;" others, not quite
so well off, take a shilling ride by the short stages
to Tottenham or Edmonton; and the less wealthy,
though equally respectable, trudge out with rod on
shoulder, and bait-pan in hand, to enjoy the free
fishing between Lea Bridge and Tottenham, well
supplied with brains from the sheep's head, — pur-
chased on the Saturday night for Sunday's dinner,—
which they chew raw,* and spit into the water as

* The brains are to be chewed and spit out of your mouth iuto the
water, as grouud-bait, to entice the Chub.— Sailer's Angler's Guide, pay?
70. Edit. 1830.

ground-bait. But, as we at this moment feel an un-
pleasant sensation in the stomach, we must be
excused from entering further into this subject at
present, which is disgusting to both man and beast,
and tolerable only to a cockney angler. Were such
enormities perpetrated on a Sunday in Scotland,
the offender would be " jure lapidatus"— justly stoned;
and a cannibal; with his mouth smeared with blood
and brains, would soon be smelt out and torn to
pieces by the shepherd's collies, as a worrier of
sheep;— and on good grounds too, for does he not
look like a wolf, an unclean ravening animal, in the
face?

The Lea, in the neighbourhood of Ware, is memo-
rable as being the scene of the fishing exploits of
"honest Izaak Walton;" but an angler of his stamp
is as unlikely now to be seen stretching his legs up
Tottenham Hill, on a fine fresh May morning, as
an otter-hunter walking on to take his morning
draught at the Thatched House, Hoddesdon, in his
way to meet a pack of otter dogs at Amwell Hill.
Two-horse coaches, leaving Bishopsgate Street every
hour, for "Tottenham! Edmonton! Waltham! Hoddes-
don! Ware!" as the cads, with uplifted finger, an-
nounce, were not known in the days of Walton; and
the angler who then wished for a day's amusement
twenty miles from town, was obliged to use his own
legs. The vulgarity of walking twenty miles, even
if a person were able, is, in the present age of refine-
ment— of omnibuses, cabs, rail-roads, and steam-

coaches— very properly ridiculed; and no native angler
under fifty is now to be found in the whole realm
of Cockaigne who ever walked twenty -miles in one
day, either on "business or pleasure, in his life. Pretty
milk-maids, like Maudlin, who can sing you a choice
song "by Kit Marlow, no longer dwell on the hanks
of the Lea. Ale-houses, cleanly enough, you may
find between Stratford and Ware, but not one with
twenty ballads stuck about the wall: nay, in the
principal houses on the Lea, which are resorted to
by Anglers, there is not a portrait of Walton to be
seen. The mere cockney angler knows nothing of
Walton ; and is utterly incapable of appreciating his
beauties. " Barley-wine, the good liquor that our honest
forefathers did use to drink of; the drink which pre-
served their health, and made them live so long,
and to do so many good deeds," can scarcely be so good
or so inspiring as in the days of Walton; since few
of the anglers of the Lea now drink it, like their
honest and amiable predecessors, in the evening,
after their day's sport, but cheer their spirits with
kindred ether— six-pennyworths of gin and water.

The London angler's excursions on the Lea sel-
dom extend beyond the Rye House, about half a
mile to the north-east of Hoddesdon; and the inn
there, the King's Arms, is certainly the most plea-
santly situated of all the houses frequented by an-
glers on that river. The accommodations are also
good; and he who would wish to try a few days'
fishing in the Lea, cannot take up his quarters at a

il

49

better house. The landscape is here pleasing,
though not grand nor striking. To the south-east
the view is hounded "by a hilly ridge, well covered
with wood, between which and the river lies a tract
of low flat pasture, verdant even during tha long
droughts of summer, when the sward in upland
places is parched and brown. The Lea is indeed
particularly distinguished by similar tracts of pas-
ture and low meadow-land, extending from a quarter
to half a mile in breadth, in nearly the whole of
its course between Hertford and the Thames.
On a fine summer evening, when there is a
mellow ambery light in the sky, a group of the
numerous cattle which are fed in these pastures —
some drinking, others looking vacantly round them
at the river side, where a few low stunted willows
or alders overhang the water,— frequently present a
scene of calm repose, without glare and without dark-
ness, which Cuyp alone has succeeded in truly repre-
senting on canvass. Cooper and Edwin Landseer
are at the head of their profession as animal
painters, and we should like much to see some of
their greater works — combats on horseback, and
scenes in the Highlands— occasionally relieved by a
cattle piece, on the banks of the Lea, somewhere be-
tween Broxbourn and Amwell

The extent of the water at the Rye-house is
about a mile and a half, from the Black Pool to the
Tumbling Bay, and is free to gentlemen frequenting
the inn. The subscription to others is two guineas

H

>€i

a-year, or half-a-crown for a day's fishing. It contains
most of the fish commonly taken in the Lea, such as
"bleak, gudgeons, roach, dace, chub, perch, and pike, and
two or three trout are sometimes caught in a season.
In one of the rooms of the inn are two drawings
of trout taken in this water. One, which is tolerably
well coloured, "bears the artist's name, W. Kilburn,
1779, but no particulars as to weight; the other, as
we learn from an inscription at the bottom, was
"taken by W. Leverton, in Shepherd's Water, the
Bye, 4th June, 1803. Length 22 inches, weight 5 Ibs."
The lucky angler, we believe, belonged to one of the
London regiments of volunteers, and came down to
the Rye-house to enjoy himself with a day's fishing,
instead of marching with his regiment to Wormwood
Scrubs, to fire a feu-de-joie in honour of George the
Third's birth-day. The parlours of two or three other
"Anglers' inns," lower down the river, are also graced
with drawings of large trout, weighing from five to
eight pounds, which have been taken in the water
belonging to the house which they ornament. None
of them, however, appear to have been captured
within the last or the present reign, bub have been
taken

" when George the Third was king."

Though at every "Angler's inn," apocryphal ac-
counts are current of large trout— of five to eight
pounds weight— being caught each season in the ad-
joining water, yet the fortunate angler who has per-
formed the feat is never to be met with. A trout,

/4

1

weighing seven pounds, was killed-— by a blow from
a mill-wheel—in the Lea, in the spring of 1834 ; and
every innkeeper, from Hertford to Blackwall, is
ready to swear that it was caught with a fly in his
water. Old Tim Bates, of Waltham, who certainly
has the eyes of a lynx for seeing through water,
declares that he frequently sees trout as long as
your arm, and weighing at least a dozen pounds,
playing about; but on such occasions he is, as he
says, so unlucky as to be always alone. In plain
truth, the Lea is good for nothing as a trout-stream;
and though, during the season, in a course of twenty
miles, three or four dozen may be taken, by the
same number of anglers, who always try for a trout
whenever they are informed where one lies ; yet he
who goes out to the Lea expressly for the sake of
angling for trout, will be very likely to return dis-
appointed, ninety-nine times out of a hundred. The
next time any gentleman succeeds in taking two
" brace" of trouts in one day, no matter how small
they may be, the proprietor of the water where they
are caught ought to publish the fact in the G-azette.
About two miles below the Bye-house, is Page's, the
"Eel and Pike," which used to be much frequented
by anglers, and to which there belongs about a mile
of water, free to those who frequent the house. A
mile lower down than Page's, is the Crown, Brox-
bourn Bridge, a house which is respectably conducted,
and where the angler will meet with comfortable
quarters; always provided that he is not a stranger,

•who drops in on a Saturday night, for then every
"bed is engaged, and room occupied by the regular
customers of the house, who come from London on
the Saturday evening, in order to "be at their favorite
" swim" "betimes on the Sunday morning. Those who
take their refreshment at the house have the liberty
of fishing in the water "belonging to it, which extends
nearly two miles. Tickets, at a guinea each, for
Weston's Subscription Water, King's Weir, lower
down the river, may "be had here. This water— which
is the most streamy of any in the Lea— in addition
to that of the Crown, affords a good chance of sport
and the angler who is in the habit of visiting Brox-
bourn, will do well to become a subscriber. Between
Weston's and Waltham Abbey there is another sub-
scription water, where leave to angle may be ob-
tained on the same terms. In the government water,
both above and below Waltham Abbey, angling is
prohibited; and the next subscription water, lower
down the river, is that known as Shury Carpenter's,
where the privilege of angling is also to be obtained
on payment of a guinea per annum. The annexed
engraving represents Mander's Weir, on this water.
To this succeeds Cook's Ferry, a subscription water,
extending about a mile each way, above and below
the house. The subscription for trolling and angling
here is a guinea per annum; and to angle, only half
that sum. Lower down are the Blue House and
Hughe's, Ferry-House, Tottenham Mills, both sub*
scription waters, From the ^termination of the latter

! >>•' irg y .j^

53

to the Lea Bridge, the fishing is free; and there is
certainly no want of non- subscribers to avail them-
selves of the liberty. The Horse and Groom, at Lea
Bridge, and the White House, "between there and
Stratford, are "both frequented by anglers, hub the
water in their vicinities do not contain so many nor
so large fish as are taken higher up. The Lea is
fished to its very mouth, at Blackwall; but few per-
sons angle below Stratford who have opportunity of
going higher up. The angler here, as we learn from
an excellent authority, " is continually annoyed by
the many passengers, as to 'What sport?' 'Do the
fish bite?' and other rude interrogations." Blackwall
certainly is not a polite neighbourhood; and the
sensitive angler, tremblingly alive to insult as his
float to a bite, has but too often his feelings wounded
by impertinent queries and vulgar sarcasms. But,
while suffering under such inflictions, let the victim
remember: "Hope and Patience support the Fish-
erman."

In most of the subscription waters above men-
tioned the subscriber is not allowed to fish in what
manner he pleases, but is restricted in his use of
live and spinning baits to particular months. Trout,
as has been observed, are seldom caught in the Lea,
and barbel are not often taken above Broxbourn.
The Lea, during the season, affords tolerably good
trolling for jack; and is well supplied with bleak,
gudgeons, roach, dace, perch, and chub; and he who
is fond of angling for such fish—inest sua gratia
parvis — will scarcely find a better river. Indeed

there is no river of .its extent in the kingdom which
contains a greater variety of the fish which are sought
after by the angler. The salmon sometimes enters
the Lea; and there are taken in it trout, pike, perch,
barbel, carp, tench, roach, dace, chub, bream, bleak,
minnows, loach, gudgeons, flounders, and eels.
Though the fish mostly caught are not of the first
quality— of such, gudgeons being the best— yet the
quantity is considerable. Seeing how assiduously
this river is fished, without intermission all the year
through, it is a matter of surprise that the fish
should continue so numerous. It is, however,
likely that a great number of them are not bred
in the Lea, but enter it from the Thames.

To the indefatigable gudgeon and roach fishers of
the Lea, we beg to commend the following stanza
of an old ballad :

"You that fish for dace and roaches,
Carps or tenches, bonus noches,
Thou wast borne betweene two dishes,
When the Friday signe was Fishes.
Anglers' yeares are made and spent
All in Ember weekes and Lent.
Breake thy rod about thy noddle,
Throw thy wormes and flies by the pottle,
Keepe thy corke to stop thy bottle;
Make straight thy hooke, and be not afeard

To shave his beard;
That, in case of started stitches,
Hooke and line may mend thy breeches."*

* Lie well yu's Men Miracles, 1656.

AN EVENING AT THE RYE-HOUSE.

fefc;

friends— Mr. William Simpson, of the firm of Simpson
and Co., a native of, and resident in, the great city;
and Mr. Alexander Tweddell, a far-away cousin of
our own, who happened to be in London on a visit
from the north. After a tolerable day's sport, we
spent the evening at the Rye House, when the con-
versation, as might be supposed, was chiefly about
angling. As none of the party expected that the
evening discourse would be made public, each was
unprepared to make a display; but just followed the
ball of conversation as it was bandied about, without
detaining it until he had deli vered himself of a long
set speech, which possibly might have been in pre-
paration for a month, and found, on being held forth,
to be both stale and dry. A gentleman of the press,
who, like ourselves, had come out to have a day's
fishing, at this dull time of the year, when parliament
is not sitting, and nothing interesting hatched either
at home or abroad, happened to occupy the small
parlour —which was only separated from that in

56

which we were seated by a wooden partition, — and
heard the whole of our conversation, which, as he
had no company, he carefully took down in short-
hand, in the regular way of business, intending tD
interweave a few of his own graces, and show up
the party in a newspaper or magazine, just as he
might feel himself in the humour to cut down or
extend the article. He left betimes in the morning,
to save the seven o'clock coach at Hoddesdon, after
giving to the waiter the following note, with orders
to deliver it at breakfast-time, addressed,

"To the Piscatory Trio, Rye-House."

" G-entlemen,

"Happening last night to occupy the small par-r
3our adjoining that in which you held your pisca-
tory session, I was an auditor, malgre moi, of the
whole of your conversation; of which, as I was alone
and had nothing better to do, I took ample notes,
in a professional way, with a view of furnishing

either a quizzical report for the Newspaper, or

a sprightly article for the Magazine, as fancy

might suggest on re-examination of my materials.

" I do not, however, wish to act towards you with
incivility, more especially as the young Scotchman,
when I met him at the water-side yesterday, was so
kind as to offer me a cigar from his box, when, seeing
that he had steel and tinder with him, I only asked
for a light— an instance of liberality which, unless

1 had witnessed it myself, I should scarcely have
believed one of his nation -would have afforded. I
therefore beg to make you the first offer of a fair
transcript of my notes for the sum of five pounds ;
-which is much less than I could obtain for them after
a few heightening touches of my own— placing a
cap and bells on each of your heads, or putting a
few good puns into your mouths — and serving your
conversation up to the public through either of the
channels aforesaid.

" Should I not hear from you by to-morrow after-
noon, I shall conclude that my offer is declined.
I am, &c. &c.

— — , Reporter.
No. — Staple's Inn.

As we chanced at this time to be in want of a
"night," whose shades might give relief to the day
of the "Angler's Souvenir," we determined, with the
free consent of our friends Simpson and Tweddell,
to accede to this modest proposal, with a view to its
insertion in our work then groaning under the press.
On our return to town, we dispatched a note, the

same evening, to Staple's Inn, stating that Mr. 's

offer was accepted ; and desiring that the MS might be
sent, as soon as convenient, to Mr. Tilt, Meet-street,
where the sum agreed on would be duly paid. In
two days the subjoined report of our sitting was
sent as directed; and is here given without addition
or abridgment. The only corrections necessary were
in the names of the parties, in which the reporter

had committed a few venial errors: — for instance,
designating Tweddell as "Mr. Saunders," from having
heard us once or twice familiarly address him as
"Sandy;" calling Simpson "Mr. Simons," and wag-
gishly locating him as a slop-seller, in Houndsditch;
and writing ourselves "the Old Fisher," in conse-
quence of mistaking our surname for a mere agno-
men, or professional designation. The songs, which
were a good deal mangled, are restored, under the
revision of Mr. Tweddell.

BE POUT OF THE EVENING SITTING- OF A
PISCATORY TRIO, AT THE KING'S ARMS,
RYE-HOUSE.

The speakers, Simpson, Tweddell, and Fisher,
dined at four; and at five "business commenced "by

SIMPSON proposing a toast: "To the pious and
immortal memory of Izaak Walton."

(Bumpers— pints— of old Staffordshire ale, drank in
solemn silence.)

FISHER, (after a deep sigh, to recover his breath.)
—A toast worth drinking — in the " language of the

evenings — how he is enjoying himself at the bottom
of my glass. There, the ale has warmed his heart,
and away he flies, brisk as a bee that keeps hum-
ming soft nonsense to the flowers in July. I will
thank you to give the toast again, Simpson.

SIMPSON".— I have no objection; but I beg to de-
cline drinking it again in ale.

TWEDDELL.— And so do I. I have no objection to
drink it again in a tumbler of toddy, if there be any
good whiskey to be had here.

SIMPSON.— Though you may praise this ale, Mr.
Fisher, I confess that I think it rather too old. For
the rest of this evening,

" I abandon all ale
And beer that is stale,"

and if no whiskey is to be had, I shall be glad to
join you, Mr. Tweddell, in a bottle of black strap.
Light dinner wines,— abominable compounds of perry
and eighteen-penny Cape— are my aversion. I won-
der how any person who drinks of them escapes the
cholera.

TWEDDELL.— I am willing.

SIMPSON.— Waiter, a bottle of your best port.
You know where to find it. Of the same that I had
last Thursday. A bottle of sherry at the same time :
I like a glass of sherry to a cigar. Let me have one
of your Havannahs, Tweddell.

FISHEK. — I was only in jest when I proposed the
other pint, as I knew that you would both shy at it.
G-ood ale is now scarcely to be had, the more is the

60

pity; for most "beneficial in former times were its
effects on the genius and morals of the nation, as
we learn from the old song:

'• Give a scholar of Oxlord a pot of sixteen,

And put him to prove that an ape has no tail,
And sixteen times better his wit will "be seen
If you fetch him from Botley a pot of good ale.

" Thus it helps speech and wit, and hurts not a whit

But rather doth further the virtues morale ;
Then think it not much if a little I touch
The good moral parts of a pot of good ale.

" To the church and religion it is a good friend,

Or else our forefathers in wisdom did fail,
Who at every mile, next to the church stile,
Set a consecrate house to a pot of good ale."

n

SIMPSON.— Go on.

FISHER.— I cannot. The ale is out, and, as always
happens in such a case, my recollection gone. But
drink what you please, — toddy, "brandy and water, or
"black strap, I am willing to join you. Any of the
usual potations in this part of the country I can
"bear, except gin. The real cream of the valley, at
three pence a quartern, should only be drank in " the
valley below."

(Enter waiter, with a couple of decanters of wine.)

SIMPSON.— Now fill, and I will again give you—
the Memory of the "Sage benign."

61

FISHER—- Again, I drink it with, pleasure. Deserv-
edly does the honest angler call him "father," and
happy are his sons who walk in the path of their
worthy parent. A spirit of cheerful piety pervades his
whole hook ; and, as he instructs us how to angle, he
interweaves his precepts with descriptions and reflec-
tions which teach us how to live happily and die well.
His book is like one of the delightful scenes which
he describes with so thorough a feeling of their quiet
beauties. A pleasant meadow, with a stream run-
ning past it, bounded by low woody hills; field-
flowers blooming among the grass and perfuming
the air; with boys and girls cropping cowslips, cul-
kerkeyes, and lilies, to make garlands to welcome in
the merry month of May. I could almost wish that
I had lived in those days, to have gone a fishing
with the good old man, whose humour waa "to be
free and pleasant, and civilly merry;" to have lis-
tened to his reminiscences of learned and pious
Dr. Nowell, cheerful Sir Henry Wotton, holy Master
George Herbert, witty Dr. Donne, or reverend Bishop
Sanderson; to have eaten a piece of powdered beef
and a radish with him, to breakfast under a syca-
more tree ; drank a cup of ale, and borne a part in a
catch with him in the evening at the house of a
cleanly, handsome, and civil hostess, in company
with a downright witty companion, who had come
out purposely to be pleasant, and eat a trout; and
then, after bidding " Good night to everybody," to
have retired to bed, where the snow-white sheets,

V

of the landlady's own spinning, smelt of lavender—
But,
" A change comes o'er the spirit of my dream."

The low woody hills have become mountains, and
the "boys and girls are changed into a flock of black-
faced sheep, with a sun-freckled, red-haired lad, in a
blue bonnet, herding them; the broad meadow is
reduced to a narrow glen, through which a noisy
stream is careering like an untamed Highland poney;
and I fancy that I hear a voice addressing the lark,
which is hovering in full song above her nest on the
mountain side,—

"Bird of the wilderness, blithsome and cumberless,
O, to abide in the desert with thee!"

I wish that I were home again.

SIMPSON.— You are disposed, I think, to " pas-
toralize a little." However highly you may admire
Walton's book, it is not in much repute among the
anglers who fish in the Lea. It is not considered a
practical work; and I have known some who, in con-
sequence of hearing it much praised, have bought
a copy, and, afber trying to read it through, have
thrown it aside with expressions of surprise that
any person — except a priest or a church-going old
maid — could admire it.

FISHER— What can be expected from men who
"blow brains" and fish on a Sunday? Walton's Angler
used to be a very scarce book in the north. Indeed
until Major published his beautiful edition in 1823,

I never had been able to call a copy my own. The
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge ought to
print an edition of this book, in order that copies
might be given— together with the Book of Common
Prayer and the Whole Duty of Man, as at present-
to promising lads who have a taste for angling, on
their leaving school. Should it not improve them
much in the "gentle art," it would at least afford
them many useful lessons in the " art of being vir-
tuous and happy." Sheridan was fond of reading
Walton, as we learn from, the Introduction to Major's
edition, and used to take a copy with him, when he
travelled, as a post-chaise companion. I can scarcely
conceive how any person could enjoy Walton amidst
the jolting and rumbling of a postchaise; and for my
own part would as soon think of enjoying the "Plea-
sures of Hope" in a bell-loft during a full peal.
Walton is best read in solitude; and he will bear
reading in all seasons. Read him in the house, in
winter, and you will enjoy summer in anticipation;
read him in summer, in the open air— on a hill-side,
by the banks of a stream, under a tree, seated at
ease in the dess* of a hay-stack, or reclining in
a clover field, — and your heart will drink in the
loveliness of the season with increase of pleasure,
and will expand with gratitude towards that Power
which framed the goodly things of the earth for our
enjoyment. "Live ever, sweet book, the silver
image of his gentle wit!"

* The nook in t\ stack from which the hay has been cut.

SIMPSON.— I highly admire Walton's work myself,
though I do not make it the text-book for a lay
sermon over a "bottle of wine.

FISHER.— You have not much taste for sermons, I
"believe, whether lay, extempore, and over a bottle ;
or clerical, savouring of the lamp, and over a cushion.
But to have done with sermonizing. — This is a tole-
rably pleasant place, Simpson, for a "bachelor like
yourself to spend a few days at, and basket a stone
or two of roach, or half a dozen "brace of jack, since
you have nothing "better that is come-at-able near
London at this time of year. Do you ever fish fly
for trout now?

SIMPSON.— O yes, in the season. I subscribe to
two waters which afford trout, one at the Wandle,
and the other at the Colne ; and I sometimes get a
day's fishing in the preserved waters of two friends,
one of whom resides at Mitcham, and the other
near Kickmansworth.

FISHER. — And do you manage to catch many?

SIMPSON.— Why, as you, who count by dozens,
understand the word, I cannot say that I do. But I
have taken, I believe, in those streams in a season
more large trout than ever you caught in beck, burn,
or river, north of the Trent— always excepting sea-
trout— in your life. In one season, from the 1st of
May to the 1st of September, I have taken with the
fly three trouts, each weighing upwards of five pounds,
besides two others which weighed three pounds
and a half each.

65

. FISHER — In this I must yield you the palm.
I never caught one real yellow-finned "burn trout
•weighing five pounds in my life. I once, however,
saw one caught with a minnow, in the Eden, near
Salkeld, which was twenty- two inches long, and
weighed five pounds and a quarter; and I knew
a person who took one in the Tweed, with a net,
which weighed nearly seven pounds. The trout, in
such streams in the northern counties as I am ac-
quainted with, are not so large as those caught in
the trout-streams within thirty miles of London.
But, to make amends, the fly-fisher there counts his
take by the dozen, while here he is fortunate who
in a day catches three ""brace." I have frequently
killed four dozen in a morning, "between daylight
and nine o'clock, and as many in the evening, be-
tween four and ten. During this last season, on
Monday, 21st July, after a heavy rain on the preceding
Saturday, a friend of mine caught thirteen dozen,
"between five in the morning and three in the after-
noon. He had on three flies, which he never
changed during the whole, replacing those which he
lost with others of the same kind. . For his stretcher
he had a grouse-hackle; for the middle dropper, a
fly with a brown body of bear's fur, and "blea," or
leaden coloured wings ; and for his highest dropper,
a red hackle.

TWEDDELL. — This is something like fishing;
but almost any one, man or boy, who has the use of
his arms, and can throw five yards of Jine into the

I

•water, without the instructions of a scientific teacher,
may catch trout by fishing well up a stream after a
spate or fresh, though not in such quantities as a
proficient in the art The true secret of old. fiy-
fishers, who scarcely ever return with a light creel,
is only to go to the water when, from long observa-
tion, they are almost certain that trouts will rise.
An old fly-fisher, who lived near Sanquhar, and
whom I have often fished with, up Spank and down
Crawick, in Ken, Scar, and Yeochan, once told me,
when I was questioning as to the secret of his suc-
cess, that for a gill of whiskey he would tell me
how I might always succeed. — It was a bargain.—
"Ne'er fish but when trouts are hungry, and fish
aye where they 're plenty." 'But how am I to know
that?' "In troth," replied he, "I canna verra well
tell ye. But ye 11 no find mony within twa miles
o' where ye can see at ae gliff, a manse, a mill, and
a public, nor nigh a place where tinklers often camp.
Trouts dinna seem inclined to take their meat
for a fortnight after sheep-washin', nor when the
water 's verra high or verra low. They dinna feed
freely outher on a warm bright day nor on a cauld
dark ane ; and the feck o' them keep a black fast
in a' weathers, atween Michaelmas and Easter." I
have seen a lad sit down by the water-side, near
the head of Yeochan, and, with a few threads from
his bonnet, and the feather of a curlew, dress a fly
on a common hook— not to a length of gut clear as
the thread of the gossamer and almost as fine, but

to a dingy link of five cow's hair, for he had no
thought of playing with the trouts— and then, with
a rough hazel rod, about nine feet long, and a line
to match, "begin fishing ; and in two hours catch as
many trouts as some cockney fly-fishers, whose rod,
flies, and tackle may have cost them ten pounds,
take in a whole season.

SIMPSON.— What you say proves that in streams
where trouts are so plentiful not much skill is
required to take them. May we not, then, conclude,
that the best fly-fishers are to be found in London,
as they are confined to angle in waters where the
fish are scarce, and so shy as only to be caught
with the finest tackle skilfully managed ?

TWEDDELL.— You may conclude so: and, upon
the same grounds, you may also infer that cockney-
sportsmen, who range the fields within ten or fifteen
miles of London, where partridges are scarce and
shy, are the best shots.

FISHER — I know that there are excellent fly-
fishers in London; but the best, I am inclined to
think, did not acquire their craft in the Colne or the
Wan die, though they may now and then occasionally
basket a few heavy trout from those streams. Chantrey
can throw a long line cleverly, either for trout or
salmon; but he was a proficient in the art, having
killed many a trout in Dovedale, before he came to
London, and I doubt if he be improved much since
he became an B. A. Sir Walter Scott has mentioned,
but where I forget, Chantrey 's partiality to sal-

mon-fishing ; and, as I have the words down in
my pocket-"book, I will read them. — "We have
ourselves seen the first sculptor in Europe when
he had taken two salmon on the same morn-
ing, and can well "believe that his sense of self-im-
portance exceeded twenty-fold that which he felt on
the production of any of the masterpieces which
have immortalized him."

TWEDDELL.— I think I have heard you say that
you did not acquire your own knowledge of fly-fish-
ing in London, Mr. Simpson.

SIMPSON. — True. When a "boy, I was at school
near Cotherstone, in Yorkshire, and it was there, in
the Tees, and in a small stream which ran close to
our master's house, that I first commenced angler.
I did not commence fly-fisher, at once, "but regularly
advanced through a course of minnow-fishing, with
a line of packthread and a farthing hook; and I well
recollect my first trial for perch, with a new rod and
a fine hair line, when I caught fifteen, and thought
myself a first-rate angler;" and 'certainly felt myself
one of the happiest of human "beings. After this
successful commencement, with something like a
regular angler's tackle, all my leisure hours and
holidays, when the weather allowed, were spent in
fishing ; and as I managed to take a good many eels,
perch, dace, and "brandling trouts, I "became a favorite
with the master's wife, who was a great economist,
and regularly served up my evening's take for dinner
the next day, and I frequently obtained, through her

intercession, a holiday, to go a fishing. My lessons
in fly-fishing were taken under our drawing-master,
as great a proficient in the art as ever I met with,
and in his company I have fished in the Wear, in
the neighbourhood of Stanhope and Wolsingham;
in the Greta; in the Swale, near Catterick; and
at Bichmond; as well as in the Tees, from Piers-
bridge to the Wheel or Weel, above Middleton.
Trouts were not plentiful in the Wear then, twenty-
eight years ago; and I understand that they have
since "become more scarce, nay almost extinct in
the upper part of the stream, in consequence of the
water from the' lead mines. The Tees used to afford
tolerably good sport from Cotherstone upwards,
though it used to be sometimes netted by the mi-
ners about Middleton. The " Weel," about ten miles
above Middleton, is a deep pool above two miles
long, and containing excellent trout. The country
is the most wild and desolate that I ever beheld, —
and I have been at the head of Borrowdale, and
crossed Dartmoor, — but the Cauldron Snout, where
the stream dashes from the Weel over a succession of
falls, and the High Force, five miles above Middleton,
where the stream leaps, at one bound, from a ledge
of rocks sixty f&et high, are well deserving of the
attention of the tourist who happens to be within
twenty miles of the place. Once, during a vacation,
when I did not return home, I spent a week with
our drawing-master, who was residing with his friends
at Bichmond. We went out together one day to an

i>

70

excellent trout-stream, near Burton Constable, about
seven miles to the southward, and were following
our sport to our great satisfaction, for the trouts
were large and rose well, when a countryman
came up, and attempted to take my companion's
rod from "Hi-m as a trespasser who was fishing without
leave. This, of course, was resisted, and a struggle
ensued, in which the artist,— who was "but weakly,
while his antagonist was a tig powerful fellow,— was
likely to come off only second best, when I, a stout
lad of sixteen, joined as thirdsman in the fray, and
turned the scale. We soon got the countryman— a
great hen-hearted fellow — down ; and without any
regard to what is called fair play, pummelled him
well when we had "him down; but that was not long,
for he soon recovered his legs, and ran off; while we,
who were swifter of foot, gave chase, and belaboured
him with the butt end of our rods right across the
field, till he escaped by dashing head foremost
through a regular bullfinch hedge, like" an ox stung
by hornets. We afterwards learnt that the fellow
had no right to interfere with us, and had only wished
to get a good rod at a cheap rate. But for once the
Yorkshireman was bit.

FISHER.— Youth is certainly the period when a
love of the fine arts, including angling, is most easily
and most naturally inspired, and a practical know-
ledge of them most readily attained. The pliant
fingers of youth, from ten to sixteen, are peculiarly
adapted to tying delicate knots, whipping on hooks,

K"

r
1

hand is " set,"

ness, and never -with ease. And then to see a gen-
tleman who has arrived at years of discretion
taking lessons in managing the rod and throwing
gracefully a long line, is about as good as a peep
at Mr. Deputy Hopkins, who never learned to
dance till after he was married, practising a qua-
drille, for the Mansion-House "ball, with his coat
and wig off. Most of our practical "books on angling
are written, not for the " instruction and improve-
ment of youth," but for the edification of elderly
gentlemen, who are presumed never to have had a
rod in their hands before; and the dry-nurse of a
teacher "begins at the beginning" accordingly. I think
it would be worth any professor's while to open an
Angling Academy at Peerless Pool, City Boad, when
it is no longer used for bathing, to teach grown gen-
tlemen the use of the long rod* — applying a birch
one, solito loco, when needful, to dull or refractory
pupils, —with examples of the art of whipping with-
out cracking off the fly. — How did you succeed in
your trolling to-day, Tweddell?

TWEDDELL.— Very badly. I only caught one
jack after a two hours' trial; and when I thought to
change nay gorge hook for a snap, I was nearly
another hour before I could fix my bait as the
bock directed, and then the best part of the day
was gone. I do not wonder at my not catching a

72

second one, for I must confess that, after I had suc-
ceeded in fixing my hooks and sewing up the
gudgeon's mouth, it presented anything "but a tempt-
ing appearance. I had handled the "baib rather too
roughly, and when all was ready for a cast, it was
not unlike a "bruised sprat, bristling with hooks, and
more likely to deter than to allure. "No pike, how-
ever hungry, I felt assured, could behold it without
aversion, if not terror, so I took it off again. An
old gentleman who came up, and perceived that I
was a novice at jack-fishing, invited me to take a
seat in his boat, which was then lying just below the
Tumbling Bay; and with one of his rods I caught
two dozen of roach, whilst we smoked our cigars,
and talked of the comparative excellence of Silvas
and Woodvilles, of fishing and shooting in the High-
lands, and things in general. Next to fly-fishing, I
should prefer trolling for jack, but I have never
practised the latter branch of angling, and I could
scarcely expect much sport in nay first attempt. I
did not choose to follow in the wake of either of
you, and receive your instructions at the moderate
charge of being laughed at. But what success have
you two had?

SIMPSON.— I caught three brace and a half of jack,
and Fisher three brace, all by trolling ; and this, con
sidering that the water is so clear, and has still so
many weeds in it, is tolerably good sport for a
five hours' bout at the commencement of the season.
They were all rather small, under four pounds,
except one of those caught by Fisher, which I think

ff

73

will not weigh much, less tb.an nine pounds. I
have not seen a "better taken in the Lea this season.
I had a run with one, which, from, the glance I had
of him as he turned, I should take to he larger ; but
though he had plenty of time to pouch, I failed to
hook him.

FISHER, — I had twenty minutes' good play with
.the largest pike, for my tackle was rather of the
finest, and he was strong and pulled hard. I nearly
lost him once, just as I had brought him near the
shore, and was preparing to get his head into the
landing net. Alarmed at the sight of the net, his
fear gave him new strength, and he went off with a
plunge which I thought had broken all away; but
my tackle held good. It was his last effort, for after
he had run off about thirty yards of line, I felt him
getting weak, when I turned him and drew him to
land fairly exhausted. He was dead beat, and when
I got him into the net, he scarcely moved a fin.

SIMPSON.— Though the cockney angler may not
take so many nor so fine fish as are caught in the
north, yet he enjoys a greater variety of sport. I
suppose there is not much trolling in the neighbour-
hood of Sanquhar, Mr. Tweddell?

TWEDDELL.— Very little. The streams are too
rapid there to afford much harbour for pike, or ged, as
they are frequently called in Dumfries-shire. They are,
however, caught in several streams in the lower part
of the county about Dumfries; and I have known
them frequently taken in locha with night-lines ; but

74

trolling is not much practised in Scotland. I think
I shall "be tempted to try it in the Lochar, as I
return home. It contains plenty of fine pike, "but
anglers there seldom try to catch them except with
night-lines.

FISHES,.— We will now basket the pikes, if you
please. Mr. Simpson, you are a regular "bottle-stop-
per— a perfect cork — pass the wine; and, Tweddell,
wet your whistle, and give us a song. I wish I had
"brought my pipes to London with me. How the fish
would have— pricked up their ears, I was going to
say— "vagged their little tails," to a merry Hit on
the Union pipes, played from a punt on the Thames
or the Lea; while the performer had a cigar in his
mouth, his eye on the float, and his foot on his rod.
Why, this would almost equal the performance of
the travelling musician who plays on six instru-
ments at once, or that of the notable servant girl,
who could,

" Whistle and knit,
And carry the kit,
And hameward drive the kye."

But I hear, by your hum, that you are in voice and
ready. Come, lay your cigar down, and off at score.

TWEDDELL. — Have a minute's patience, tin I
can recollect the words, and I will give you a
"Fisher's Call." I am not sure that lean go through
it without breaking down, for I have never yet sung
it in company, though I have now and then crooned
over a few lines to myself. You know the writer

75

well, an old angling crony of yours; but you cannot
have heard the song before, as mine is the only
copy that he has given to any one.

THE ANGLER'S REVEILLE.

Old Winter is gone, and young Spring now comes
tripping ;

Sweet flowers are springing wherever she treads ;
While the bee, hovering o'er them, keeps humming
and sipping,

And birds sing her welcome in woodlands and meads.
The snow-wreath no more on the hill-side is lying;

The leaf-buds are bursting, bright green, on each tree;
Ho, anglers, arouse ye! the streams are worth trying,

Fit your rods, and away to the fishing with me !

Haste away! haste away! for the south wind is blowing

And rippling so gently the face of the stream, ,
Which neither too full nor too fine yet is flowing,

Now clouded, now bright with a sun-shiny gleam.
At the foot of the fall, where the bright trouts are
leaping,

In the stream where the current is rapid and strong,
Or just by the bank where the skeggers seem sleeping,

There throw your fly light, and you cannot throw
wrong.

There 's joy in the chase, over hedge and ditch flying ;

'Tis pleasant to bring down the grouse on the fell;
The partridge to bag, through the low stubble trying ;

The pheasant to shoot as he flies through the dell.

Jj

f

76

But what are such joys to the pleasure of straying
By the side of a stream, a long line throwing free,

The salmon and trout with a neat fly betraying?—
Fit your rods, and away to the fishing with me I

To awaken the milk-maid, the cock is yet crowing,—

She was out late last night, with young Hodge, at

the fair —
To he milked yet the cows in the loaning are lowing ;

We '11 "be at our sport ere young Nelly be there.
The weather is prime; and the stream in good order ;

Arouse ye, then, anglers ! wherever you be, —
In Scotland, in Ireland, in Wales, on the Border, —

Fit your rods, and away to the fishing with me !

FISHER— Good!

"In Scotland, in Ireland, in Wales, on the Border,
Fit your rods, and away to the fishing with me!"

Some one has been conjuring with your song,
Tweddell, for three spirits have already appeared at
the invocation — an anonymous angler in Ireland;
Hansard in Wales ; and Stephen Oliver on the Bor-
der. But the spell has not been sufficiently powerful
to rouse that master-spirit in Scotland, to whom every
stream and loch is known in that

" Land of the mountain and the flood;"

who at one time may be seen throwing his light
fly in the Tweed, by the "lovely levels of holy

Ashiestiel/' — consecrated as having been formerly
the residence of Sir Walter Scott,

"For the lore

Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core
Of human hearts, the ruin of a wall
Where dwelt the wise and wondrous ...—;"

at another time wiling the bold trout, Salmo Ferox,
from the depths of Loch Awe ; and anon, waking the
echoes with -a lofty strain, as .he hails the morn,
amidst the wilds of Morven.

SIMPSON. — Four have answered the summons —
you forget Capt. Medwin's "Angler in Wales."

F1SHEH. — He is a spirit of another class, who
has approached the circle unbidden. The "Angler in
Wales ! " why I see not the least trace of the angler
throughout the two volumes. He might as well have
" unbuckled his mail,"— stuffed with fragments of" tra-
vellers' tales/' and scraps from the feast of languages,
— at Calcutta, and called his book the "Angler in
Hindostan." Independent of the misnomer, it is not
written in the spirit of an angler. How could it?
when the doer, whoever he may be, probably never
handled a rod, or felt the inspiration of the art, in
his life. The calm and cheerful spirit, which the love
and practice of angling inspire, is not to be found
in the book. From, his "scattering his water" on
Byron's ashes, it is not difficult to read his riddle.
The noble bard should have dedicated one of his
poems to his friend— Heaven save us from such friends
—and appointed him one of his executors. Then,

V

78

perhaps, .Rogers, Moore, and Hobhouse, might have
been saved from, the "blunt, clumsy, sabre of his
satire, which only mangles, but does not cut; and
Byron himself not have been shown up by his
friend as a petulant coxcomb and a flash blackguard.
I cannot for a moment believe that Byron, with all
his faults, was the despicable character that Medwin,
soi-disant Byron's friend, and Angler in Wales,
represents him.

SIMPSON.— Take a cigar, Fisher, or you will lose
your temper; and tell us calmly what scandal about
Lord Byron it is that moves your bile.

FISHER — I might then tell you nearly all
that is said about him in the book. He is repre-
sented on the day that the author of the " Pleasures
of Memory," and of "Italy," was expected to call on
him, ordering his bull-dog and his monkey into the
billiard-room, where he intended to receive his visi-
tor, for the purpose of annoying him. When Mr.
Rogers entered, it is said the dog rushed furiously
at "Him, and was encouraged by Byron, while, with-
out noticing his visitor, he pretended to call the
brute off. At length he thought good to discover
the cause of the affray; to kick Tiger off, and
press his "dear Mend" in his arms. To the great
entertainment, I conclude — if the story be true
— of the toad-eaters present, who nattered and
encouraged the noble poet in his wayward folhes
as the price of their admission to his society; and
who, when he . was in his grave, for the sake of
dishonourable gain, exposed and exaggerated his

79

follies and Ms vices, and held him. up to the
contempt of the world. If this story were true,
Byron and his "bull-dog should have "been served in
the same manner that Lieutenant Bowling served
Roderick Random's "brutal cousin and his quadruped
auxiliaries. Tiger should have been silenced with a
blow from a shillelah; and his master floored by a
right-handed hit between the eyes, and afterwards
kicked as he lay, ad putorem usque, as a reward
for his unmanly conduct. I think I know one
living poet who would have done it, had he been
served so, and have made the jackals grin on the
wrong side of the face had he observed them encou-
raging the fun by their sardonic smiles, ad exam-
plar regis, after the fashion of the lion, upon whom
they then fawned, when living, but preyed, like
unclean animals as they were, upon his carcase
when dead. It is no joke to have a bull-dog within
a couple of yards of you, watching an opportunity
to rush in and seize you by the throat. I know what
the feeling is, and therefore am disposed to think
very indifferently of the man who would wantonly
place another in such a situation. I was once pass-
ing over a lonely moor in the north of England,
when I came suddenly upon a gipsey's encamp-
ment, and before I perceived any of the party, a long-
backed, bow-legged, brindled bull-dog made towards
me, shewing his formidable teeth, and eyes glaring
with rage. I stood still the moment I saw him, and
he was just crouching preparatory to a spring, when
his master, who had observed him rush from under

the cart, called Mm off. "He is a savage-looking
animal," said I to the man, as the dog skulked slowly
to his resting place. "He is a savage," replied the
man, " and we never let him lowse "but in places
where we dinna expect to meet strangers. It's weel
for ye that I saw him spring up, or he wad hae had
your thropple out afore ye could cry 'Jack Robison."'
I felt the truth of this at the moment most forcibly,
as I was walking, in consequence of the heat of
the day, with no handkerchief on and my neck bare.
I afterwards learnt that the savage disposition of
this dog was purposely encouraged by his owner,
who occasionally smuggled a little whiskey from the
Scottish side into England, for the purpose of keep-
ing excisemen at a distance.

SIMPSON.— I am not so sceptical as you are.— I can
believe this of Byron.

FISHEB. — Can you? Then you entertain more
uncharitable feelings towards his memory than I
do, for what can you think of the man who could
be guilty of such an act of wanton cruelty and

81

those disgraceful freaks which a man of unsettled
mind and capricious temper is liable to indulge
in, when surrounded only by those who are far
"beneath him, or whose only passport to his com-
pany is their perfect compliance with, and applause
of, everything that he says or does. I have more
than once seen a man of really good heart, in a
moment when he forgot himself, give pain to a
long-tried worthy friend, to gratify a small knot
of ephemeral acquaintances "by whom he happened
to "be surrounded.— Were you never caught yourself,
scarcely compos, "by a grave old friend, leading the
revels among a graceless crew, whom, in your 'sober
senses and in daylight, you. would be ashamed to
be seen with? and, as he left the room, more in
sorrow than in anger, have you not joined in the
laugh which the professed wit of the party raised
at his expense?

FISHER. — I am still sceptical But, even should
a person, not thoroughly insensible to every better
feeling, find himself in the last predicament, would
he not, on reflection, be ashamed of his conduct,
endeavour to make reparation to his friend, and
shun the company of the flatterers who corrupt
him?

SIMPSON. — In such manner I believe Byron
would act.

FISHER.— Byron's living with another man's wife,
the Countess Q-uicciola, is as well known as his

J

feat of swimniing across the Hellespont. She had
abandoned for him. husband, home, and good name
— if there "be such a thing as female reputation in
Italy;— and yet he is represented as speaking of her
in a most unfeeling manner to one of his "friends,"
just after she had passed them on a ride : " I loved
her for three weeks, — what a red-headed thing it
is!" This "red-headed thing," at the same time,
living with him as a wife! Believe this of Byron
who likes, not I. It is more likely that the reporter
•'lies — under a mistake," as Byron himself writes,
than that the author of Child Harold was so heartless
a being.

SIMPSON. — I am inclined to think that these
anecdotes, which give so unfavorable an account of
Byron, have prejudiced you against the general
merits of the book as a work on angling.

FISHER— Work on angling !— though you say you
have looked it through, you cannot have read it, or
you would never allude to it as a work on angling.
Why, there is nothing in it but what Rammohun
Roy, who never caught a trout in his life, might
have written with the aid of a sixpenny Art of
Angling. So far from entertaining any prejudice
against the book, I read on past the scandalous anec-
dotes about Byron, till I was fairly brought up by a
"Poem" at the end, about Julian and Gizele, the
Findarries, Zalim, Spahees, Beils, G-hebres, G-oorkhas,
Bringarries, &c. &c. I then fairly saw land. The
" thing" had been " done" expressly for the circula-

I

If ~

I

)N

Jl

83

ting libraries, with the chance of hooking an angler
from the title. There is a capital blunder in his
first volume, where he gives a quotation from Neme-
sian, as illustrative of the instinct of a bitch. He
must have picked the passage up somewhere, ready
cut and dry, for it is evident he cannot have read
the context. The poet means that a bitch, when her
whelps are surrounded by a circle of fire, will rescue
the best first, from an instinctive knowledge of its
excellence. The original passage,—

" . . . . rapit rictu primum, portatque cubili,
Mox alium, mox deinde alium. Sic conscia mater
Segregat egregiam sobolem virtutis amore,"—

he ignorantly renders :

"... . with opening jaws, first one,
And then another, to her hutch she bears ;
The mother, conscious of their danger, thus
With an instinctive fondness saves her young."

Conscious of their danger! What a wonderful instance
of instinct in the bitch, and of sagacity in the
plumeless biped — or unplumed rather, for he appears
to have been feathered once— who discovered such
a meaning in the lines ! — Send the bottle round,
Sandy, why are you looking so glum? — Angler in
Wales , whoever thou art, Valeas !

TWEDDELL.— I am not looking glum, I am only
getting weary of your lengthy criticism on the
''Angler in Wales." I have read some very clever

84

extracts from it, and I think every author has a
right to prefix what title he pleases to his hook.

FISHEB. — Do you? Then if 'Angling/ 'Angling
Recollections/ and BO forth, prove taking titles, we
will soon have Anglers in Italy, France, Holland,
Germany, Egypt, America, Africa, and New South
Wales— that there are several pocket-anglers in the
latter colony, on public service, is well known;— and
even ladies who keep a journal of their travels, and
produce twins— handsome foolscap octavos — every
twelvemonth, will he tempted to usher in the "hot-
pressed darlings" as the production of an "Angler;"
an appellation which may, in another sense, be
correct, as the word is Epicoene, should the fair
authoress he a spinster.

SIMPSON.— Have you seen Hansard's " Trout and
Salmon Fishing in Wales?"

FISHEB. — Why need you ask, when you know
that I "buy every new "book on angling that appears?
It is a perfect gazetteer of every lake and stream
in the Principality, at once so ample and so accurate
that I suspect the author must have been several
years engaged in the Ordnance Survey. I see that
he has resumed in his book a considerable portion
of the article "Angling," which he must have fur-
nished to Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. No
angler should go into Wales without taking Mr.
Hansard's book in his pocket. The "Angler in Ire-
land" appears to have had excellent sport; but I
really do not perceive the consistency of his making

so many half apologies for saying so much about
angling, when, from the title of his "book, we are
led to expect that angling would form his principal
subject. One might suppose that his book was first
written as an account of a tour generally, and that the
portions which treat more expressly of angling, were
afterwards dove-tailed in. He, however, writes like one
who could make a long and clever cast, and who has
a heart to feel all the beauties which lie exposed
to the honest cultivator of the gentle art. His book
will bear reading a second time, even "by one who
may think him too partial to the " orange-fly," and a
"leetle" too ostentatious of chronicling his punctual
observance of the "Sabbath." Were it not for his
stating that he goes to church, I should "be some-
times inclined to suspect him to "be a hired distri-
butor of Tracts to some sectarian " Society for con-
verting the Heathen." Stephen Oliver, too, the
Yorkshireman, who makes the Border Counties,—
Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland,—
the scene of his angling recollections, now and then
gives us a touch of the mock sublime, and writes
as if he had just been refreshing his memory from
Harvey's " Meditations in a Flower Q-arden." But fill
up a humper— here's to them all, and success attend
them : The Angler in Ireland, Hansard, and Oliver,—
light hearts and well-filled creels, with a good
account of their next piscatory campaigns !

SIMPSON.— There is a clever little book, "Maxims
and Hints for an Angler," with illustrations by
Seymour, which you have not mentioned.

FISHER. — It is a clever little book, but not of
this year's brood; and the hints and maxims of the
author, who modestly styles himself a "bungler," I
should think would do credit to any of the adepts
of the Houghton Club. I see, from the illustrations,
that the members are cased up to the fork in enor-
mous boots, and that a smock-frocked or liveried
attendant, with a landing-net, is always in waiting
to do the honors in introducing the trout to a new
element. Where gentlemen "whip" — I wish the
author would discard the Cockneyism next edition —
with kid gloves on, Jack I am inclined to think will
often be as good as his master in securing the fish,
and entitled to share the honors of the capture.
The angling characters introduced in the illustra-
tions are portraits, I understand, of members of
the club. That of the stout gentleman slipping
off the bridge on a windy day, is said to be the
portrait of an eminent sculptor, and I have heard
that he furnished Seymour with the sketch from
which the design was made.

SIMPSON. — Have you ever seen any American
books on angling, Fisher?

FISHER. —No. I do not think there are any pub-
lished. Brother Jonathan" is not yet sufficiently
civilized to produce anything original on the gentle
art. There is good trout-fishing in America, and the
streams, which are all free, are much less fished than
in our Island, "from the small number of gentle-
men," as an American writer says, "who are at lei-

87

sure to give their time to it." We are further
assured, by the same authority, that ladies do not
so often partake of this amusement in the States as
in England.

SIMPSON. — Lady anglers — at least for fish — are
far from numerous in England, so far as my obser-
vation extends. I have not seen one for these last
three years, though I heard of one the other day
tumbling out of a punt, as she was angling for gud-
geons with her father in the Lea, near Bow. She
was soon fished up; and after being treated, secun-
dum artem, — according to the directions of the
Humane Society,— came to herself, and was conveyed
home in a cab, as she had lost one of her shoes.

FISHER— There is one mentioned in the " Angler
in Wales," who is in the habit of regularly fishing
fly, attended by her Abigail. This lady appears, from
what is said of her, to be as well acquainted with the
turf as the stream; and ChifFney or Scott might
take lessons from her in the art of training and
managing the race-horse. She is musical, too. How
delightful to hear the syren, iamiliar with the beau-
ties of Bossini, after her return from giving her
hunter a breathing,

" Whistle sweet a diuretic strain!"

I do not like to see ladies either angling or playing
on the fiddle. These are not lady-like accomplish-
ments, any more than smoothing the chins of bris-
tle-bearded coal-heavers is a feminine employment.

I cannot bear a female "barber or a male " chamber-
maid." Do many ladies angle in Scotland, Tweddell?

TWEDDELL. — Not to my knowledge. I have
known a lady once or twice try a few casts with a
gentleman's rod, and hook a trout too, "but I cannot
say that I ever knew one who was a professional fly-
fisher. I, however, once saw a woman kill two
salmon, with the fly, in the Tweed, about a mile
above Kelso, in March 1832. She fished -from a boat,
which was also managed by a female companion.
I was out with a friend the same day, and though
we had several rises, we both failed in killing a sin-
gle salmon.

FISHER. — Cedant braccae stolae, — "Fy, Sandy,
yield the breeks to Meg!"— What kind of sport have
you had in trout-fishing in your part of the country
this season?

TWEDDELL.— Not very good, except in the early
part In such a dry summer as this has been there
is not much sport after sheep-washing begins, unless
there be a good spate shortly after, to purify the
streams. During sheep-washing, and for a fortnight
or three weeks afterwards, trout are very shy of rising,
more especially if the water be low. I have often
spoken with old anglers about the cause of this, and
have heard different reasons as signed for this shyness
of the trout. One says that they are sick, in conse-
quence of the water being impregnated with the tar
and grease which is washed from the fleeces of the
sheep; another, that it is as much owing to the

dung from their hind quarters, as the greasy tar is
not incorporated with the water, but floats, like a
rainbow-coloured film, on the surface; and a third
says they are gorged with the ticks and vermin
which are dislodged from the fleece in the washing.
To this last opinion I am inclined to give very little
credit ; but I think the trout may be disordered by
the joint effects of the greasy tar and dang, and
alarmed by the disturbance in different parts of the
stream. I have seen the scum of the tar by the
side of a stream, in considerable quantity, ten days
after the sheep-washing was over. A good spate,
however, seldom fails to cure the trout and restore
their appetite. I saw an instance of sick trout this
year, but not in consequence of sheep-washing. It
was in a stream which was much swollen from a
heavy rain the day before, and the water was very
much discoloured and thick, as if a newly-ploughed
field had been overflowed and the soil washed away,
oc as if a bank of earth had fallen in. The water
was by no means so high as I have frequently seen
it, but in mid-channel it was almost black; and
shoals of small trout crowded to the sides, so weak
and helpless,— wabbling about as if they were fud-
dled, — that you might take them out with your
hands.

SIMPSON.— I do not think that this has been a
very good season for fly-fishing anywhere. A friend
of mine, in Herefordshire, informs me that there has
been a deficiency of sport in that part of the country,

FISHER. — The same may "be said of some of the
"best trout streams in Yorkshire and Westmoreland.
The Eure, the Kibble, the Lime, the Lowther, the
Esk, and the Eamont, have not afforded average
sport this season, as I can testify, both from my
own experience and that of others. Some of them
have been completely dragged with nets for miles ; and
I have seen the waters of kmore, than one of them
of a chalky colour for several days, and fish lying
dead by their sides, from the more destructive prac-
tice of liming. Should these practices be continued,
fly-fishers will have no option but to emigrate, and
leave the fair but troutless streams of England, for
the rivers and lochs of Cunnemara, or for the virgin
waters of the middle and northern States of America,
where never yet trout were deluded by the gay
deceivers of O'Shaughnessey, Chevalier, or Widow
Phun. Ungrateful country ! thou wilt mourn the loss
of thy kindest children too late ; when thou hearest of
them extending civilization, and introducing a know-
ledge of the gentle art among the wild men of
Galway, or the red men that dwell by Lake Huron,
when no longer the trout leaps in thy streams, and
when no more the angler's reel is heard sounding on
their banks. The gigantic trout of Lake Huron,
iSalmo Amethystinus,) weighing one hundred and
forty pounds, has never yet been captured by a
native angler, — red man, or Yankee; — and if ever he

be captured, it is a native of the British Isles, skilled
in all the mysteries of the art — who can neatly spin
a minnow or troll, as well as lightly throw a fly—-
who will achieve the glorious deed.

SIMPSON. — You are romancing now, when you
talk of a trout weighing one hundred and forty
pounds.

FISHER— I am not. A gigantic species of trout,
said to attain that weight, from Lake Huron, is actu-
ally described by Dr. Mitchell, a distinguished Ame-
rican naturalist; and the specific name, Amethystinus,
has "been appli ed to it from the purplish tinge of its
teeth. For my own part, I have no doubt of the
fact; and should have no objection to make one of a
party to proceed to Lake Huron, for the purpose of en-
deavouring to capture one of those Leviathans ; — that
is, provided the expenses were defrayedby government
or by public subscription. And even should the expe-
dition fail in its object — Captain Parry did not reach
the North Pole, nor Captain Boss discover the North
West Passage — yet would the public derive immense
gratification from a circumstantial report of our say-
ings and doings ; for,

" Quarter-day would see us back,
With each a volume in his pack."

There are also trouts weighing from twenty to sixty
pounds in Lake Michigan ; and some of the weight
of ninety pounds are said to have been taken in
the straits of Michilimackinack— a name well worthy

of a ninety ponnder— which connect Lake Huron
with Lake Michigan.

SIMPSON.— A gentleman of the name of Vigne, a
member of Lincoln's Inn, took a trip to America,
about three years ago, daring the long vacation, and
enjoyed a few days' fly-fishing in Pennsylvania. He
had some fair sport in the Juniata, one of the tri-
butaries of the Susquehannah. The trout were from
half a pound to three pounds in weight ; and in li ttie
more than two hours' fishing he caught about six
dozen. He mentions the red-hackle as the best fly
that an angler can throw in Spring Creek.

FISHER— The red-hackle is deadly on all waters,
though not at all times. It is one of my three types
for the colour of flies. The red, black, and grouse
hackle, are with me standards, and all the trout-flies
whieh I dress are only varieties of these, with the
addition of wings, and a difference of shade in the
dubbing. Those which I range under the red type
comprehend the various shades from scarlet to lemon
colour. The second extends from positive black,
through the various shades of the martin's wing and
leaden coloured hackles, to the bluish-grey feather
of the tern. With the grouse hackle are classed the
various shades of brown, from the chesnut of the
pheasant to the grey-brown of the partridge. With
the last I also place my flies with speckled wings,
from the May-fly to the grey drake and feathers of
the Guinea fowl. In conformity with this arrange-

ment, my fly-book consists of three principal divi-
sions, each 'of which again consists of two compart-
ments, one for hackles proper, and the other for
•winged flies ; and I can turn to the colour and suit
myself with a hook of the size wanted with the
greatest facility.

TWEDDELL. — I have known some gentlemen
who were seldom successful in taking many trout,
though their assortment of flies was most extensive.
They have wanted perseverance, and have wasted
their time and lost their patience in fiddle-faddling
and changing their flies, when they should have
kept fishing on. I seldom change my flies after
"beginning to fish, in a stream which I am well ac-
quainted with, though I may sometimes keep walk-
ing and throwing for two or three hours, and scarcely
catching so many fish. I have, notwithstanding,
continued using the same flies,— "because I was satis-
fied I could put on none more likely, — till I found
the fish in a humour to feed; and have filled my
creel, when others less persevering, hut who had
perhaps tried a dozen different flies, walked home
with their creels toom. I do not think it a good plan
for an angler always to he adding flies to a stock
which he is not likely to use up for years. In
looking over a large "book of flies, "belonging to a
gentleman who prided himself on their number and
variety, I have found many moth-eaten and not fit
for use. An excellent fly-fisher of my acquaintance
generally carries his whole stock in the two pockets

94

of an old Scots' Almanack, with two or tnree links
of salmon-flies between the leaves. There is one of
his salmon-flies which he shows as a trophy. It is
rather a plain looking one, with a yellowish-brown
coloured "body, brown wings of a bittern's feather,
with a blood-red hackle for legs, and the link of a
pepper and salt mixture, formed of five black and
five white horse-hairs. With this fly he killed, in
one day, five salmon, the last of which weighed
twenty-five pounds, the largest that he had ever
taken with the fly. He landed this last salmon
after a severe contest of upwards of an hour, during
the whole of which the fish never sulked, but
kept continually dashing about the pool where he
was hooked, which was not more than eighty yards
long, and was too shallow at its head to allow of his
pushing up the stream; and the angler managed to
keep his station towards the foot, to prevent his
escape downwards.^ There is nothing like keeping
a fish in constant exercise for speedily killing him.
I have seen many a good fish lost by being trifled
with — holding him lightly or allowing him more
line than you can manage — when he contrives either
to break the link or entangle the line, and escape.
I never allow a salmon a slack line, and thus give
him the benefit of a run, when he is almost certain
to carry all away. Every good salmon-fisher has a
tolerably correct notion what strain his tackle will
bear, and holds his fish with a firm., though, when
required, not unyielding hand, and keeps him con-

stantly moving. The combined effect of fear and
violent exertion produces, I am inclined to think, a
sort of apoplexy, or fit of stupor, in the fish; and
whenever he is suspected to be in such a state he
ought to be landed as soon as possible, before he
recovers. I have seen a large trout quite stupid and
exhausted when brought towards the shore, but, in
consequence of not being quickly landed, recover his
strength, and break away. The moment that an
angler brings his fish towards the shore, he ought to
be prepared to land him.

FISHER. — I quite agree with you that both sal-
mon and trout are seized, in consequence of their
struggles and their fright, with something like a fit,
which, for a time, renders them powerless. Perhaps
when they are so hooked that the mouth cannot be
regularly closed when the line is held tight, their
free breathing may be interrupted, and similar effects
produced in a fish as in a human subject when his
cravat is tightly twisted in the murderous gripe of
a cowardly antagonist. Whenever you have brought
a fish, in such a state, to the shore, net him or gaff
him directly. Have the " click" into him wherever
you best can, and do not tickle him to his senses
again by two or three misdirected attempts at his
gills, for fear of ripping his side. One fish gaffed
by the side is better than a dozen missed by trying
for his gills. Get him by the gills, if you can, but
get him however. Down on your knees as you draw
him to the bank, and quickly, quietly, and firmly

fix the hook of the gaff in him, and out with him,
as a fisherman from Robin Hood's Bay hauls a cod
from the hold of a five-man boat. Kill him directly
with a few smart blows on the head, with a life-
preserver, if you have one in your pocket, if
not, with any stick or cobble-stone heavy enough;
slip through his gills a cord, one end of which you
will fasten to a bank-runner, or the stump of a tree,
and throw him into the water till you want him.
He will eat as firm again as he would do had you
left him to die on the shore by inches, — a dread-
fully protracted death to a salmon three feet long,
or a human being upwards of six feet high.

SIMPSON. — I never caught a salmon in my life,
though I have killed some trout which for size
might be considered such. I should, however, like
much to catch a few "brace" of salmon before I hang
up my rod as a votive offering to the water nymph a.
But it seems you cannot depend on catching salmon
with the rod, however skilful, though you should
fish for a month, unless you go to the west of Ireland,
or the extreme north of Scotland. Sir Humphrey
Davy has said "fuit" of salmon-fishing in the
southern counties of Scotland; and the "Angler in
Ireland" declares that no good salmon-fishing is to be
expected in Wales.

FISHER— Then off with you next spring, either
to Cunnemara or Inverness-shire. "Hope deferred
makeththe heart sick;" so if you have conceived an
affection for salmon-fishing let not your long-deferred

wishes steal away the roses from your cheek— you
have now a color like a peony, Simpson, — and pre-
sent you with wrinkled crow-toes in exchange. As
soon as the green leaves "begin to appear on the
quickset hedge of your garden, start hy the first
steamer for Aberdeen, and thence find your way
as you best can to the Spey, the Ness, the Beauly,
the Shinn, the Oykell, the Ainag, the Cassly, or the
Carron; and if you have not sport to your satisfac-
tion, "between 10th April and 10th May, cross the
country to Portpatrick, take the steamer to Donag-
hadee, and then set off for Cunnemara as fast as
you can hie, and you will he there time enough
to have a month's good fishing in the Costello,
the Spiddle, or

" The sweet flowing river of JBallinahinch."
I should like extremely to visit Cunnemara myself,
" the next parish to America," as the Angler in Ire-
land says,—

" Sedfugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus,
Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore."

" With angling enraptured, at ease sitting here,
While we talk of the scenes of our fishing next year,
How the salmon we'll tempt with a neatly dressed ny,
The time that will never return hastens by."

Whether fishing or talking about it— recounting past
pleasures, or anticipating future— pulling out trouts
as fast as we can throw in, or thinking time slow
when wearying for a rise — in joy or in sorrow, in

o

98 ,

sickness or in health, getting or spending— Old Time,
however we may fancy him moving, fast ,or slow,
still holds equably on his silent stealthy pace ; and,

"Let the day be ever so long,
At length it ringeth to even song."

These candles, however, contrary to the usual
progress of things, are growing gradually shorter.
Tweddell, I wish you would give us another song,
before they reach the vanishing point. You never
sing now, I believe, Simpson — the more's the pity —
either at kirk or merry meeting.

SIMPSON. — That is because you never avail
yourself of an opportunity of hearing me. I am
rather out of song— not of voice— at this time, remem-
bering nothing but a few old ones, which were stan-
dards in the days of Incledon, but are now quite out
of fashion, or I would give you a treat directly.

FISHER. — I can excuse you, for I have some in-
distinct recollection of once hearing you bawling out
in the "Storm," and, in conjunction, though not in
concert, with another amateur, completely reversing
"All's Well." But come, Sandy, do favor us, if you
please, and, for to-night, this shall positively be "the
last time of asking." Something fishy, if you have
such a thing in the cupboard of your memory.

TWEDDELL. — I have just been rummaging, and
I think I have hit upon the very thing ; but I expect
that you will sing after me.

FISHER— So I win, but not to-night. I will
chaunt matins, in the morning, in a style that will

M

enrapture you. If there be a lark within hearing he
will make himself hoarse till May in feeble emula-
tion. Silence! have done making that noise with
the stopper on the table, Simpson. You are trying
to recollect some of your old "composers," I perceive.
Get the start of him, Tweddell.

T WE DDE LL.— Well then, since such is your wish,
you shall have another stave.

THE ANGLER'S EVEN-SONG-.
Sober eve is approaching, the sun is now set,
Though his beams on the hill-top are lingering yet ;
The west wind is still, and more clearly is heard
In meadow and forest the note of each bird:
The crows to their roost are now winging their way:
It is time to give over my fishing to-day.

I arose in the morn, ere the sun could prevail
To disperse the grey mist that hung low in the vale.
To the linn I went straight, distant ten miles or more
Where the stream rushes down with a bound and

a roar ;

In the black pool below I had scarce thrown my line,
Ere a trout seized the fly, and directly was mine.

How they rose, and I hooked_them, 'twere needless

to tell.

I fished down the stream to the lone cradle-well,
Where I sate myself down on a stone that was nigh,
(For the sun now was bright, and the trouts getting

shy ;)

A flask of good whiskey I had not failed to bring,
And I chasten'd its strength with a dash from the

spring.

100

Refreshed then I rose and ascended the hill,
To gaze on the landscape so lonely and still;
Where I met an old shepherd, and near "him lay down,
At the hack of a cairn, where the heather was "brown ;
And we talked of old times, and he sang an old strain,
Till 'twas time to he gone to nay fishing again.

Though my creel be so large, to the lid closely filled,
It will not hold the trouts which since morning I've

killed;

I must string on a withy three dozen or more —
I ne'er in a day caught so many before,—
But though heavy my creel, yet my heart is so light
That I'll sing a song of my fishing at night.

SIMPSON.— Now, a toast to conclude with, Mr.
Tweddell.

TWEDDELL. — " The gentle Art of Angling ! "

FISHER— A charming toast; no "ball-room "belle
so deserving of a "bumper. "Her ways are the ways
of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

SIMPSON.— The best thing you have said to-night,
Fisher; and most cordially do I say, Ditto.

(Exeunt omnes.)

CHAPTER IV.

HODS, HOOKS, AND TACKLE.

THE requisites of a good rod for fly-fishing are
strength, lightness, and even pliability, so that it
he not too supple in one part and too unyielding in
another, hut "bending, when a heavy fish is hooked,
in a regular curve from top to hut, and thus equa-
lizing the strain. Fifteen feet is a convenient length
for a tr outing rod; and a rod of this description,—
having the two lower joints and the stock each
ahout three feet three inches long, with the stock
or hut hollowed to contain a fourth joint, three feet
long, with two top pieces, in case one should "be
"broken when fishing, from eighteen to twenty-two
inches,— may he carried in a hag, and put together
when wanted. The small top-piece ought never to he
joined to the next length by a brass socket, hut "by a
neatly fitting " scare"— as the joining made by sloping
each piece to alternate angles is called — and spliced
on with a piece of double silk or fine twine, at the
water side. When the rod is in the bag, the "brass
sockets ought always to be kept plugged, to prevent
their being pressed together, with pieces of wood
which exactly fit them; and in putting the rod

«T?r^

Stet.

firmer hold. When this precaution is not taken, and
the ends not tightly fitted, the angler will sometimes,
more especially when throwing a long line, he liahle
to send half of his rod to follow his fly. A piece of
clean sound fir makes a good stock when it is not
intended to be hollowed: hut when it is required
to be hollowed, there is nothing better than a piece
of ash. Hickory is mostly used for the piece next
the stock, and the upper lengths are made of lance-
wood, hazel, yew, &c. and the extremity of the top
piece is sometimes of whalebone, bamboo, elder, or tor-
toise-shell, according to the taste of the owner. The
piece of whalebone ought never to exceed six inches
in length, for, though supple, it is not very elastic;
and when too long it is apt to acquire a permanent
bend, from frequent strain. Most anglers will ac-
knowledge that the handiest rods which they have
fished with are such as are not joined by means of
sockets, but are scared, and which are not com-
monly reduced to more than two pieces. Such rods
are only to be met with in the neighbourhood of
a trout-stream, where the owner has no occasion to
reduce them to short lengths for the convenience of
carriage when travelling, but generally carries them to
the water in two pieces, and frequently keeps them
in a rack at their full length for weeks. Pocket
rods consisting of eight or ten pieces, of eighteen
inches each, are well adapted for the gudgeon

103

fisher who does not wish to have his errand
known as he travels towards Hornsey or Tottenham
Mills. The small leading rings, of brass wire, on
trouting-rods are frequently so badly soldered where
the ends meet, as to open almost as soon as
a heavy fish is hooked. Five out of thirteen rings
on a showy London-made rod began to gape and let
the line through on the first day that it was used by
a friend of the writer. Tackle-makers ought to be
more attentive to have the rings well soldered; and
the angler who wants a rod for use, and not for
mere show, will have the rings made of harder and
stouter wire than is now generally used. The ring
at the end of the rod ought always to be close to the
top-piece, without the two ends of wire, forming a
sort of continuation of it, to be bent, like a crooked
pin, with the slightest pull.

A salmon rod is usually from eighteen to
twenty feet long; and the latter length is to be
preferred where a person can use it freely. A
long rod not only enables the angler who is"
perfectly master of it to cast farther, but it also
gives him greater power in killing the fish when
hooked, by using the but as a counterpoise, while
a comparatively slight movement of his hand, as the
centre of motion, causes the top to describe a con-
siderably greater arc, than a rod three or four feet
shorter; — an important consideration when the fish
runs suddenly in, and the reel cannot be wound up
so quick as to take in the slack line. The salmon-

104

rod is test made of materials similar to those recom-
mended for a trouting-rod, only having a heavier
but, which never ought to be hollow, nor ought any
of the pieces to be joined by brass .sockets, as the
brass is liable to split when making a long cast, when
considerable exertion is required, and the joints to
work loose, in half an hour's play with a wild and
strong fish. A salmon rod may be conveniently formed
of four lengths; the stock six feet long, of ash or fir;
the two next joints, five and a half and five feet
respectively; and the top joint three feet and a half,
made of some tough and elastic wood, with the
extreme end of whalebone or spliced bamboo. Such
a rod as this requires only three scares ; and when
the angler has his thread and twine for wrapping
ready, it may be put together in little more than
five minutes. There is no particular charm in the
Ien4th of a rod which enables an angler to take sal-
mon; and a twenty foot rod only confers power on
him who can skilfully use it. Many a good salmon
has been killed by a rod five feet shorter ; and when
an angler who is trout-fishing perceives a salmon,
let him by all means try, if he have good tackle and
a salmon fly with hiiTi, to hook the fish, and let him be
not deterred from making the attempt on account of
the shortness of his rod. Additional patience and
unwearying perseverance will not unfrequently en-
able a skilful angler to land a salmon of can pounds
weight, which has taken a trout-fly, with tackle
which a bungler would break in trying to pull oat

n
tt

^

105

a trout weighing three. In putbing the bag-rod
together, he is only a novice who requires to be
told that the leading rings must be placed in a
line; when the rod is joined by scares, the
rings cannot be placed awry, because they are
previously tied on so as to lie in a line. The rod
used in trolling for pike is commonly about fifteen
feet long, with the rings stouter, and placed at a
greater distance than on a trouting-rod, and the top
joint is stronger and less flexible.

A reel is indispensable in salmon-fishing, and
many anglers carry it strapped about the waist by
a belt, as they are thus enabled to use the rod with
greater freedom. Others use it as in trout-fishing,
attached to the but of the rod. A reel is always a
useful appendage to a fly-rod, even where the fish
are small, and the angler can hold them, or has room
to play without risk to his tackle, as ib enables him
to lengthen or shorten his line at pleasure and
without trouble. Some persons are fond of hearing
their reel sound, though the trout which they have
hooked be such an one as can hardly run the line
off, and which they might easily land without allow-
ing him an inch. Such are generally neophybes, who
talk of the "play" of a trout nob

ful; "but in many places, where the angler travels for
miles by the lonely stream — unbooted — for who
could walk twenty miles cased up to the crutch in
something like a "French postilion's jack-"boots? — this
is often dispensed with, and the angler, after having
fairly wearied out the fish, draws him gently to
the shore, and lands him with his hand. A " gaff,"
which is a stick rather pliant, from three to four feet
long, with a large hook screwed into one end, is
used by the salmon-fisher to lift the fish out of the
water.

In fishing for salmon it is generally necessary to
have from sixty to eighty yards of line, which may
be either of silk, or silk and hair, without knots, on
the reel ; and to the end of this should be looped or
knotted a casting-line of hair about the length of
the rod, consisting of sixteen hairs at the upper
end, and gradually diminishing to ten or twelve
where it is joined by the foot-length or link to which
the hook is whipped. Many old anglers are of opi-
nion that casting -lines, hand-twisted and knotted,
may be thrown better, and are less liable to kink
than such as are twisted by a machine. Being
knotted is no objection to this portion of the line,
as it is not required to be drawn within the rings.

A line from thirty to forty yards long, somewhat
stronger and thicker towards the end which is fas-
tened to the reel, is generally used for trout-fishing in
streams ; and such as are made of silk and hair are
more pliant and less apt to kink than those that

107

are entirely of hair. To this a casting-line, either of
single gut or hand-twisted hair, of the length of the
rod, can be added, according to the state of the
water. The great objection to hair-lines twisted by
a machine, for casting, is their being so liable
to run into circles, and not lying straight on the
water. The cause of this is their being so hard
twisted, for the purpose of keeping the ends of the
hairs closely bedded in the strand. Some persons
recommend steeping the line for a few minutes in
cold-drawn linseed oil, with a view to make it water-
proof, and run smooth, and that it may be less lia-
ble to kink. Such a practice is, however, by no
means recommended, as it most certainly causes the
line to rot sooner than one which is not so treated.
New lines should always be wetted twice or thrice,
and then stretched and well rubbed with a piece of
woollen cloth or flannel, to take the kinks out of
and smooth them, previous to being used. A great
preservative of lines from rotting is to dry them
thoroughly after they have been used. To put lines
away damp is a ready mode of rendering them good
for nothing.

By whatever name hooks may be called — Limerick,
Kendal, Carlisle, or ELirby— and whatever may be
the pretended excellence of this or that particular
bend, the great object is to obtain them well made,
neither so soft as to draw out almost straight, like
a piece of pin- wire, nor so brittle as to snap on re-
ceiving a slight jerk. Before tying them they ought

108

to be tested; the smaller ones "by pulling them with
the fingers, and the larger ones by a smart pull
•when suspended over a -wooden peg. The pretended
advantages of one kind of bend over another, for
hooking and holding fish, remain yet to be con-
firmed by experience. If the hook be in other res-
pects well made, with a fine point and barb, the
angler need not be particular about the bend. The
hooks used by anglers are, in England, commonly
numbered from 1 to 12; No. 1 being the largest in
the series. A smaller hook than No. 12 is sometimes
used in fishing for bleak and minnows ; and there are
salmon-hooks made two or three sizes larger than No. 1.
No. 4 is about the size commonly dressed in the North
as a gilse-hook; and salmon-flies are dressed upon Nos.
1 to 3, as well as upon hooks of larger size. The sizes
mostly required in fly-fishing for trout are from No. 6
to No. 10. From 10 to 12 are used in angling for
roach, dace, gudgeons, and smelts ; and Nos. 5 and 6
are the sizes recommended in fishing with live bait
for perch. Barbel, though commonly weighing from
three to five pounds— many are taken in the season
weighing ten pounds, — are angled for with a small
hook, as they have a comparatively small mouth,
and rather suck the bait in than bite at it boldly;
and a hook about a No. 9 size, but made thicker and
stronger than the common hooks, is frequently used
by those who are partial to barbel-fishing.

Most books on fly-fishing contain long lists of

109

flies, named after the particular insect of which
it is pretended they are an imitation, but to
which they hear so very distant a resemblance that
the most skilful entomologist would be completely
at fault in assigning the species. Such lists, for the
most part, only confuse the beginner, and give him
wrong ideas of the rationale of the art, and are not
of the least use to the proficient The greatest num.-
ber of trout, as is well known to every practical
angler, are caught with flies which are the least like
any which frequent the water. The imitation of
the yellow May, which is so common on many
streams towards the latter end of May and the be-
ginning of June, is scarcely worth admitting into
the angler's book; for when the natural fly is most
abundant, and teachers say the imitation is to be
used, it is generally good for nothing, as the trout
very seldom take it when the real fly is on the
water; but, in direct opposition to the unfounded
theory, prefer a hackle, black, red, or brown, or a
dark-coloured fly. Some writers have recommended
light-coloured flies when the water is clear, and dark-
coloured ones when it is discoloured; but in this
advice we cannot concur, as our practice is nearly
the reverse. When the water is clearing after rain—
for it is needless to try fly-fishing when the water
is at the full, and almost black during a spate or
fresh — we again repeat it, that no flies are more
likely to tempt trouts than red-hackles and flies
with bodies of a similar shade; and when the water

110

is small and clear, small black and dark-coloured
flies are to "be preferred.

Wherever fly-fishing is practised — in England,
Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, and Ame-
rica—it has been ascertained from experience that
the best flies are those which are not dressed pro-
fessedly in imitation of any particular living insect.
Red, black, and brown hackles ; and flies with wings
of the bittern's, .mallard's, partridge's woodcock's,
grouse's, bald-coat's, martin's, or blue-hen's feathers,
with dubbing of brown,, yellow, or orange, occasionally
blended, and hackles, red, brown, or black, under the
wings, are the most useful flies that an angler can
use, in day-light, on any stream, all the year through.
For night fishing, in lakes or in "weils," as long still
pools are called in the North, no fly is better than a
white hackle. The directions given in books to beat
the bushes by the side of the stream, to see what
fly is on the water, and to open a fish's stomach,
to see what kind of a fly the fish has been feeding
on, that the angler may put on a similar one or
dress an imitation at the water side, are not deserv-
ing of the least attention. The angler, when he goes
out a fly-fishing, must be guided in his selection of
flies by the state of the water, — whether clear or
dull, smooth or ruffled by a breeze; and also by
the state of the weather, as it may be cloudy or
bright. When the water is clear, and the day rather
bright, small flies and hackles of a dark shade are
most likely to prove successful, if used with a fine

Ill

line and thrown by a delicate hand; "but when both
water and weather are in such a state, it is only by
fishing in the morning and evening that the angler
can expect the fish to rise. His best time is then
before eight in the morning and after six in the
evening, from June to August. When the water, in
such weather, is ruffled by a fresh breeze, larger
hackles and flies, of the same colour, may be used.
When the water is clearing, after rain, a red hackle,
and a fly with the body of orange-coloured mohair,
dappled wings of a mallard or pea-fowl's feather,
with a reddish-brown hackle under them, are likely
to tempt trout, at any time of the day, from March
to October. The old doctrine of a different assort-
ment of flies for each month in the year is now
deservedly exploded; for it is well known to practi-
cal anglers, who have never read a book upon the
subject, and whose judgment is not biassed by
groundless theories, that the flies with which they
catch most fish in April will generally do them
good service during the whole season. The names
which are given to artificial flies are for the most
part arbitrary, and afford no guide, with two or three
exceptions, for distinguishing the fly meant. Where
.the materials for dressing a dozen flies are so very
much alike that when they are finished there is so
little difference in appearance that one angler will
give them one name, and another a different one,
it is absurd to pretend to affix to each an individual
appellation. The best mode of arranging the artificial

flies used in angling is by considering them under
two distinct classes :— 1st, hackles proper, or palmers
as they are sometimes called, without wings; and
2d, flies with wings. The varieties of the first may
be more particularly described from the materials
forming the body and the colour of the hackle ; and
the latter, also, from the materials forming the body,
and from the colour of the wings. For simply indi-
cating the kind of fly used, it is best to express it
by the characteristic of colour. The old confused
method of referring artificial flies to natural ones,
to which they bear not the slightest resemblance, is
scarcely attended to by practical anglers. Many an
angler who can more justly pride himself upon the
variety of his flies than upon the number of trout
which he has taken, only knows them as they are
labelled for him by the fly-maker; and seldom two
anglers agree in the specific name of their flies —
except two or three of the most common — unless
they both happen to deal at the same shop.

It is a great advantage to the fly-fisher to be able
to dress his own flies, although the facility with
which flies can be obtained of the different tackle-
makers, both in town and country, no longer ren-
ders this acquisition indispensable to the modern
angler. Even though he should never attain the
skill of O'Shaughnessy in dubbing a salmon-fly, nor
equal the neatness of Mrs. Phun in dubbing a " pro-
fessor," he will find it no very difficult matter, if he
have the use of his ten fingers, to fashion an ento-

113

mological non-descript, which, if used with tole-
rable skill, will clearly let him see, that, in spite of
what the old gnostics teach, it does not require
more wisdom to delude trouts than it does to govern
the world. "Where fules and fish," said an old an-
gler, unwittingly paraphrasing a maxim of antiquity,
" are willing to "be beguiled, it is no sae very fine
a flee that is needed to catch them."

Though no directions, however explicit, for dress-
ing flies, are so likely to convey an idea of the ope-
ration as seeing a fly made, yet the following les-
sons may be of some service to grown gentlemen —
but abecedarians in fly-fishing and fly-dressing— who
do not like to ask for or may not have an opportu-
nity of obtaining practical instruction.

Having your materials ready, hold the hook in a
horizontal position, with the shank downmost, and
the bend between the fore finger and thumb of your
left hand. Having half a yard of silk ready waxed,
take it by the middle, between the finger and thumb
which holds the hook, and with your right hand give
it three or four turns round the shank, inclining
them towards its end, and there fasten the silk with
a single loop. Next, place the end of the gut on the
inside of 'the shank, and reaching nearly to the bend,
and holding it straight, whip it tightly on till your
turns reach as far as the bend, and then fasten your
silk again with a single loop. The two ends of your
silk will now hang down together. With the longest
end of your silk, with three turns, whip, on the inner

Q

114

sLde of the hook, at the bend, three plumelets from
the stem of a peacock's tail feather, by the upper
ends, and with the root part lying towards the left
hand, again fastening the silk by a single loop. Next,
with the fore finger and thumb of the right hand,
twist the plumelets and silk together, and wrap them
closely round the shank till you come to the end,
when you must twitch or cut off the superfluous
feathers, and fasten your silk with a double loop.
With a pair of scissors you are now to trim the body
of the fly to a proper form, keeping it full
towards the middle, and tapering towards the
bend. With the other end of silk still hanging
from the bend of the hook, whip 'the point of a
hackle in the bend of the hook, in the same manner
as the plumelets, keeping the bright side of the
feather downmost, and stroking the fibres from tne
point towards the root. Wind the hackle from the
bend towards the end of the shank; and at every
second turn, holding fast what you have so far
wound, pick out, with a needle, such of the fibres
as you may have wrapped in. Proceed in this man-
ner till you come near to the end of the shank,
when you must clip off from the stem of ths
hackle the fibres which are not required, pare
down the stem itself, press it close to the shank,
and, with the silk well waxed, whip it tightly down
with two or three turns, fastening the silk off by
wrapping it thrice over the fore finger of your left
hand, laid upon the hook, passing the end through

115

the triple loop thus formed, wrapping the three
turns close, and drawing the end tight. Clip off the
ends of silk, and the hackle is finished. In the same
manner as directed for forming the body of the
plumelets, frequently called herls, of a peacock's fea-
ther, may those of an ostrich, or any other bird, be
used When wool, fur, or floss, is used for "dubbing" —
a word which, though frequently applied to the whole
materials of fly-making, means strictly, that portion
only of which the body is formed— it is spun round
the silk, which ought to be well waxed, in a similar
manner, and gradually thickened where the body is
required to be most full. The first essays of the
learner ought to be made on a rather large hook, and
when he has acquired something like a neatness of
manipulation, let him. dress a hackle for use, upon
a No. 6 hook, and from that proceed to the smaller
sizes.

To dress a fly with wings is a more complicated
process than to dress a hackle; and to finish it
neatly requires more skill. Having the feathers
intended for the wings, and the dubbing for the
body, prepared, and lying conveniently within reach,
hold the hook with the bend between the fore
finger and thumb of the left hand, and the back of
the shank upwards, and with a well waxed thread,
about twenty inches long, take five or six turns,
towards the end of the shank. Place your gut
on the inner side of the shank, holding the end be-
tween the finger and thumb of your left hand, and

116

wrap it "three or four times about with, your silk,
immediately above its junction with. the shank; then
whip it, with three or four turns, to the shank, as
firmly as your silk will allow, fastening it with a
single loop. Then take the feathers for the wings,
laying them on the outside of the shank, with their
"bright side next the hook, with the points towards
the gut and the root towards the fingers, holding
the hook by the bend, and with two or three turns
whip them fast. Fasten your silk with a single loop;
cut off the root of the feathers close to the silk, and
continue your whipping till you come to the bend
of the hook, and then, with a single loop, fasten
your silk again. Having your dubbing for the body
ready, spin it, from the fore finger and thumb of
your left hand at the bend of the hook, round your
silk, which should be well waxed, with the fore
finger and thumb of your right, and wind round the
hook till you come to the wings, where you must
take a double turn, and then, stripping off the su-
perfluous dubbing from the silk, whip it neatly
down. Next separate the wings, and turn them back
as you intend them to stand, and bind them so by
alternately crossing the silk between the separation.
Wax your silk well, and twist round it the dubbing
for the head, take two or three turns, as may be
required, to the end of the shank, and i'asten your
silk off, as directed in dressing a hackle. With a
needle, raise the dubbing gently from the warp ;

trim the tody to a proper form; set the wings
straight; and the work is done.

This is the mode of dressing a winged fly of the
simplest kind; hut where a hackle is wrapped over
the dubbing, as is frequently the case, the mode of
proceeding is as follows :— First wrap your silk four
or five times round that part of the gut which is
exposed to be chafed by the end of shank; then
placing the gut on the inner side of the hook, with
four or five turns, from the shank end, whip it as
tightly as the silk will bear, and fasten the silk with
a single loop. Place your feathers for the wings on
the back of the hook, whip them fast, cut off the
roots, continue the whipping to the bend of the
hook, and fasten off with a single loop as before
directed. If you intend to dress your fly with whisks
— bristle-like projections forming a forked and some-
times a triple tail — the small feathers or hairs
meant to represent them are now to be whipped
to the back of the hook, with a couple of turns of the
silk. Next whip on your hackle-feather, by the point,
as you would do in making a hackle proper, take a
turn or two round the bare hook, below the whisks,
and fasten your silk by a single loop. Now wax
your silk well, spin round it your dubbing, — of
floss, wool, or fur, accordingly as you intend to form
the body— wrap it once or twice below the whisks,
and then wind it up as far as the wings ; strip from
the silk the superfluous dubbing, and fasten with a
single loop. Bib up the body with the hackle,

118

taking care to keep the fibres clear, till you come
to the wings, and then, with two or three turns,
fasten it neatly down. Turn "back the wings
to the position in which they are intended to lie,
and if they "be large, give them two or three wraps
over all, to keep them, well hack. Divide the wings
equally with a needle, and give them two or
three wraps between the point of division crossing
alternately. Wax your thread well, spin round it
the dubbing for the head, wrap it from the wings
to the end of the shank, fasten your silk properly
off, and the fly is made. These directions, which
we have endeavoured to render as intelligible as
possible, though at the expense of sundry repeti-
tions, and apparently needless instructions in mi-
nute points, will enable the learner to dress a fly;
although it is probable that the result of his first
attempts will be such as are more likely to frighten
than to allure a trout. Let not the novice, however,
be alarmed, like a second Frankenstein, at the sight
of a creature of his own making, but continue his
essays ; and after a few trials, more especially if he
have an opportunity of seeing an artist at work —
should he be not a gentleman of obtuse understand-
ing, and deficient in "tact," one whose fingers are "all
thumbs"— he will be delighted to perceive the flies
of his own manufacture gradually assume a shape
less questionable, and at last come from his hands
perfect: most captivating hackles, hare's lugs, pro-
fessors, grey drakes, starling's wings, and wren's

The angler who dresses, dubs, "busses, or ties
his own flies— for these are all synonymes of the
same process — has an additional source of pleasure
opened to him in the collection of materials; and
while gathering fur and feathers from quadruped
and fowl, he is at once adding to the store of his dub-
bing-bag and to his stock of information in Natural
History. He learns to distinguish the nice shades
of difference in the feathers of the starling and the
grouse, of the dotterel and the wren, the pheasant
and the partridge, the mallard and the pintado, the
bald coot and the black hen ; and so acute is the
discriminating faculty of the practised collector that
no keeper of wild beasts "can cheat him with the
fur of aBarbary Ape for that of the Green Monkey of
Demerara; the soft fur of whose thorax and abdomen,
of gosling-green slightly tinged with mouse-colour,
is so great a desideratum with every amateur and
professional fly-dresser. To an angler of this class
the Zoological Gardens afford a treat far beyond that
which is enjoyed by the mere lover of natural his-
tory; for, in addition to the pleasure of seeing the
animals, he has the gratification of collecting mate-
rials for his dubbing-bag, and receives his shilling's
worth twice over. A friend of ours visited this col-
lection about two years since, and during his three
hours' perambulation, contrived to amass such a

stock of hair and feathers as renders his dubbing-
bag unique. The wings of one of his salmon-flies are
formed of the feathers of a condor, variegated with
the plumage of a macaw; the body is formed of the
•undergrowth of a lion's mane, and the whisks are
from the beard of a leopard. A feather from the wing
which may have soared above the top of Chimborago
has often floated on "Tweed's fair river," between
Coldstream and Norham, and the hair from a
mane which may have been dabbled in the blood
of the antelope in the desarts of Africa has more
than once been red with the blood of a Tweed
salmon. From a Hudson's Bay owl, which he caught
nappingi he obtained some fine brown-brindled fea-
thers; and he would have "feathered his nest" well
with the emerald plumes of a parrot had not Poll
screamed out "murder!" and compelled him to
desist.

The angler's dubbing-bag ought to contain fine
wool, floss, silk, and mohair, of various colours,
brown, red, orange, lemon, and straw-colour, olive,
willow-green, and drab. Fur of various shades,— gos-
ling-green, cinnamon, dun, brown, brownish-yellow,
and mouse-colour. Feathers, for wings, of different
shades, from a dark brown to a bluish-grey. The
under-mentioned birds will afford an ample assort-
ment for the use of the fly-fisherman :— the cormorant,
heron, bald-coot, starling, dotterel, field-fare, grouse,
partridge, glead or kite, pheasant, owl, mallard, teal,
pintado, turkey, jay (for salmon-flies), tern, and mar-

tin. Peacock and ostrich feathers supply him with
herls, and those of the latter may "be dyed of any
colour required. Hackles, red, black, and white,
•with a variety of intermediate shades, are obtained
from the neck and from the wing-coverts of the
common cock and hen. In fact, there is scarcely a
bird, from an eagle to a tom-tit, whose feathers may
not be of service to the angler, in enabling him to
vary the colours of his flies. Even the light downy
feather of a goose tied on a hook, in the simplest
fashion, has been sometimes used with success in
night-fishing. Bright scarlet hackles, which are
mostly used in dressing salmon-flies, may be ob-
tained from any military acquaintance who shows a
tuft of red feathers in his plume. The topping or
crest, which moves so gracefully on the head of the
lapwing, as he bobs about upon the fell, is often
recommended for the body of a fiy ; but it is more
praised for this purpose than it deserves, for the
herl of an ostrich answers the purpose much better.
No gentle angler will kill him for the sake of his
crest, nor the martin for the sake of his wing; and
none but a downright barbarian— a scientific savage
who would "murder to dissect," or his purveyor, who
would Burke a young sweep for the price that his
teeth would bring at a dentist's — would think of
shooting a wren, and she perchance a widow, with
a small family of thirteen unfledged young ones de-
pendent on her— her mate having fallen a prey to a
hawk or a weazel, — for the pitiful reward of her tail.

/irta '

122

Gut and hair links, strong silk for whipping, of dif-
ferent colours; gold and silver tinsel, or twist, for
ribbing; with wax, needles, penknife, and a pair of
sharp-pointed scissors, are necessary appendages to
the dubbing-bag.

From March till May, salmon are generally angled
for with flies of more sober colours than are used
from May to September; and three of each kind are
here enumerated, though it is by no means pre-
tended that, in the summer season, salmon will rise
at the latter only.

1. Body of a brownish yellow, formed of the fur
from the roots of a hare's ears; wrapped with a yellow-
ish-red, or, as it is called, a ginger hackle; wings
from the feather of a bittern's wing, with whisks of
the same.

2. Mouse-coloured body of fur, tipped with scarlet
at the head and tail; wings of a turkey's feather; a
red or brownish-yellow hackle, from half-way up the
body to the wings.

3. Cinnamon coloured body of mohair, fur or wool,
tipped with red; leaden-coloured wings of the feather
of a heron; blood-red hackle, from half-way up the
body to the wings.

These three flies are given as standards for colour,
of which many varieties maybe dressed by blending
the dubbing and varying the shade of the wings
and hackles, according to the angler's fancy. The
last two flies may be dressed either with or without
whisks.

A

.ft

W

123

4. Body of claret- coloured wool or mohair twisted
in with the herl of a peacock's feather, ribbed with
tinsel or twist; grouse hackle under the wings; head
of red mohair; wings of the "blue and white mottled
feather of a jay, with strips of "bright blue feather
extending a little beyond them.

5. Body of smoky-dun coloured fur or wool and
black ostrich herl; tipped at head and tail with
bright orange; full red hackle over the body; wings
of a bittern's feather, with strips of red at each side.

6. Body leaden-colour; ribbed with tinsel or bright
yellow silk, with a full black hackle over it; three
short black filaments for whisks; wings of blackish
green feather of a cormorant, variegated with blue
and green from the eye of a peacock's tail-feather;
red mohair for the head.

All the above flies may be dressed on hooks No. 1
to 4, and varieties of the three last maybe dressed by
blending dubbing of different shades, and varying
the shade of the hackle and wings. According to
the size that salmon run in the water where the an-
gler is fishing, and the facility afforded by the banks
of the river for killing a fish, he must suit the
strength of his link. In comparatively small pools,
rocky, with a strong fall of water at the head, or a
sudden bend, formed by a jutting rock, towards
which a salmon generally hastens when hooked,
and where strength as well as skill is required to
turn him, single gut will seldom avail. In such

m

*rV

124

places, the liook ought to be whipped to triple gut
or a link of nine horse-hairs. In long slacks or weils
clear of rocks, where the "banks afford the angler a
quarter of a mile's clear run, single salmon gut, or
a link of six hairs, may suffice. We have heard of
salmon-fishers using only three hairs; and that
small fish, from four to seven pounds, may be killed
with so fine a link, there is no doubt; but should
a salmon of fourteen pounds take the fly when the
angler is using such an one, he will be very likely
to wish that it were tripled. A stouter kind of gut
called salmon-gut is used in dressing large hooks for
gilse and salmon. As the link is generally fastened
—or bent, as a whale-fisherman says of the junction
of the foreganger, the foot length of his harpoon, and
the whale-line — to the casting-line by a loop, it is
advisable to have it not less than three feet long.
A double loop near the hook is always to be
avoided, as small air bubbles are apt to collect
round it, as well as from its falling heavier on the
water.

Large flies of the most gorgeous colours — a pris-
matic combination of red, orange, yellow, green, or
blue— are sometimes dressed, but they are rather for
show than use; though salmon will unquestionably
take a very gaudy fly when a more quaker-like beauty
will not tempt them to rise. It is needless to give
directions for dressing such a parti-coloured paragon,
as any person who can dress a fly has only to con-
sider the rainbow as his type for colour, and he

126

will scarcely fail to produce as perfect a specimen
of the genus as any salmon would wish to take.

The following flies are such as are most gene-
rally used in angling for trout; and any one
of them may be used either as a stretcher or a
dropper; the former being the fly at the end of the
line, the other that which is placed higher up.
Whether angling in lake or stream, it is advisable
to use three; the lower dropper about three feet
from the end fly, attached to the foot-length by a
link two and a half inches long; and the second
dropper about two feet above the lower, by a link
an inch longer. The foot-length, or trail, as it is
called in some parts of England, ought to be three
yards long, from the end fly to the casting-line, to
which it ought always to be knotted, and not looped;
and for fine fishing, when the water is low and clear,
it ought to be of the finest gut, and the flies of the
smallest size.

HACKLES PROPER, WITHOUT WINQ-S.

1. Black hackle. — Dubbing of brown, leaden, or
claret colour, with a black hackle over it.

2. Similar dubbing, with smoky- dun hackle. These
two are to be tried when the water is clear.

3. Red hackle.— Claret, cinnamon, or bright brown,
with a red hackle from a cock's neck. The colour of
this hackle is of various shades, from a yellowish-red
or ginger hackle to a reddish-brown.

I

126

4. Soldier hackle — Dull scarlet or light claret colour,
with a "bright red hackle. This and No. 3, -will generally
"be found useful when the water is rising or falling,
and before it "becomes quite turbid, after rain.

5. Grouse hackle. — Olive or cinnamon colour, red-
dish-brown mottled feather of the cock bird of the
red grouse or moor-game for hackle.

6. Wren's tail.— Black and orange colour blended;
hackle of the feather of a wren's tail, or one oi
similar colour. May be used as a dropper at all
times.

7. Hare's lug.— Light-coloured fur of a hare's" ear,
or the white herl of an ostrich feather, blended with
straw-coloured floss-silk; white or grey hackle over all.
This is of excellent use in the dusk of a summer's
evening, either on lake or stream.

r

ri

WINGED FLIES.

8. Body lemon-coloured; wings of a starling's fea-
ther, with whisks of the same.

9. Body of the fur of a hare's ear, blended with
black; wings as the last, of a starling's feather.

10. Body of hare's ear; mallard's wings, with red
hackle under them.

11. Body olive colour, with lemon-coloured tip ; red
hackle over it; wings of the pheasant.

12. Olive, cinnamon, or straw-coloured body; grouse-

127

13. Body mouse or leaden colour, tipped with,
silver; ginger or yellowish, hackle; wings of the
heron or tern.

14. Body gosling-green and drab "blended; ribbed
with silver; cinnamon-coloured wings of a dotterel;
with red hackle under them.

15. Copper-coloured body, tipped with red; wings
of the starling, the pheasant, or bittern.

16. Body of the black herl of an ostrich; ribbed
with silver; wings of the blue feather of a heron.

17. May fly. — Body yellow or straw colour; wings
of a mallard's breast feather dyed yellow, with gin-
ger hackle under them; whisks, the light brown fila-
ments of a pheasant's wing feather, or three black
hairs.

18. Grey drake.— -White or cream-coloured body,
ribbed with brown; mottled wings of a mallard's or
grey drake's feather ; grey hackle under them ; whisks
as the last.

19. Cream-coloured body; wings of the feather of
the grey owl; with similar hackle underneath.

20. Similar body to the last; bittern's hackle;
wings of the greyish-blue feather of the tern. The
last two may be used with advantage towards the
dusk of the evening.

The above hackles and flies may be dressed upon
hooks No. 6 to 10, and used according to the state
of the weather or the size of the fish that the angler
may expect to take. No. 6 to 7 will do for large trout

128

and whitlings, when the day is windy and the
water rough; a hook of No. 9 size may Toe used in
smoother water ; and small hooks from 10 to 12, when
the water is clear and there is little wind. The
feather for the wing is rather mentioned as indi-
cating the colour than intended to convey the no-
tion that it is absolutely necessary to use the feather
of the bird specified : any other, of the same or
similar shade, will do as well. Trouts are not parti-
cular as to a shade, or inclined to examine the lure
minutely, when they are disposed to feed. When the
day is bright, the water clear, and no wind, so that
the fish can distinctly see the lure offered to them,
it is needless to expect to catch many with the
artificial fly; although, on such occasions, two or
three infatuated gluttons, who cannot resist the
cravings of appetite, though they may plainly see
that there is " death on the fly," may be caught
when the rapidity of the stream, flowing over
an uneven bottom, causes a ripple at the surface.
Though we know, from frequent experience, that
two or three flies — which are specified as such
in the list— are generally well adapted for night-
fishing, or when the water is clear, yet we must
acknowledge that we are aware of no better mode of
deciding what flies are especially suited for each
month in the year, than by putting one of each kind
noticed in our list into a hat, on the 1st of each
month, and drawing out blindfold the first half-
dozen which fix themselves in. the fingers; and we

-- ' -

?%• ^

129

dare pledge our piscatorial reputation that they will
be found as killing for trout, during that month, as
any particular half dozen set down for the same
month "in the books." Writers who have formed
their lists of flies for each particular month of the
year according to the example of old father Walton,
have not attended to the alteration in the calendar
since his time, and do not seem to know that fish,
never having been made acquainted with the act of
G-eorge II., commanding the change, still observe
the old style. All the editions of Walton published
since this act for correcting the calendar —that is
all from the date of Moses Browne's, anno 1759,
to the present time — are consequently twelve days
too slow in their lists of flies for every month, and
require correction accordingly. It is surprising that
the editor of a late expensive edition of Walton, who
is so well acquainted with dates and calendars,
should have over-looked this most important fact, as
in such kind of annotation it might be presumed
that he would have found himself most at home.
Sir Humphrey Davy, who, in his " Salmonia," has
shown himself rather too prone to find a reason for
every thing connected with angling, has, in that work,
put forth some grave trifling, which he intended for
reasoning, on the subject of salmon taking a fly
whose original — supposing the lure to be an imita-
tion of the dragon-fly — they never could have seen;
and the result of his ratiocination is very like
"a conclusion wherein nothing is concluded." Ac-

s

TO

130

cording to Sir Humphrey, the salmon may take
the fly in sport or from curiosity; or if they take
it as food it may be in a mistake for a small
fish, or from a vague recollection of the flies
upon which they fed when samlets. — Now we are
arrived at the last link of the chain, but what does
that hang on ? The mystery of the samlets taking
any kind of fly,— as they can receive no lessons in
entomology from their parents, who are recruiting
themselves in the salt water at the mouth of the
river before their progeny have burst from the "pea"
near its source,— is at least as great as the salmon
taking a showy lure of fur and feathers, which
may be like something that he may have tasted
before, while the impulse which prompts the samlet
to seize his "first fly" must be purely intuitive. But
this is not the only attempt in the book to explain
the ignotum per ignotius, and after a parade of
showy argument, but feeble reasoning, leaving the
question where it was. One of the grounds for sup-
posing that salmon take the fly from curiosity or in
sport, is, that, during their abode in rivers, they are
never found with food in the stomach: with equal
reason may we not suppose that they take the worm,
minnow, small trout, gudgeon, and par-tail— for it is
known that they will bite at all these — from the
same motives ? What a playful and inquisitive fish
the salmon must be! Believe with us, gentle reader,
—which is according to the faith of your grandsire,—
that the salmon takes the fly, whether aquaker in sober

drat), or an anonymous cheat in green, purple, scarlet,
and gold, for the purpose of swallowing it, should it
prove to his taste. The digestive power of the salmon
is known to be great, and the process of digestion
rapid, and if their food consisted only of flies and
insects when in fresh water,— as most assuredly it
does not— there would "be nothing wonderful in the
stomach always "being empty when caught in rivers.
As the stomach of the salmon, as in man, probably
retains its power for some time after the animal is
deprived of life, the question as to the fish not feeding
when in fresh water cannot be decided by examin-
ing the stomach three or four hours after death,
when it is possible that the contents may in that
time have been digested. On a dozen different rivers
in England, Ireland, and Scotland, let the stomachs
of fifty salmon, at each place, during the season, be
examined immediately after the fish is landed, and
we think it probable that food of some kind— worms,
fish, or insects — will be found. It was at one period
asserted and believed, that nothing, except mere
fluid, was ever to be found in the stomach of a
salmon, either during his abode in salt water or in
fresh, till it was discovered that in salmon taken at
the mouths of rivers the stomach was frequently
full of sand eels.

The annexed Plate of Angling Apparatus contains
representations of— 1, 2. Plummets for sounding the
depth of the water; the first with a ring at the top,
and a piece of cork at the bottom to stick the point

132

of the hook in ; the second, a roll of thin sheet lead,
one of the folds of lead "being passed round the shank
of the hook when used. 3. A "bank-runner. 4. Tin
box for gentles. 5. Clearing-ring. 6. Reel, winch, or
pirn. 7, 7. Cork floats. 8, 8, 8. Quil floats. 9. Trimmer.
10. Gaff, or landing-hook, with a telescope handle. 11
Disgorger. 12. Landing-net. 13. Bait-kettle. 14. Live-
bait, showing the mode of fixing the hook, either
through the "back or the lip. 15 Gorge-bait. 16. Gorge-
hook and baiting-needle. 17. Thumb-winder. 18. Hooks,
from No. 6 to 13, with specimens of single or double
eel-hooks underneath. 19. The artificial bait called a
" devil." 20. Drag-hooks, for clearing away weeds, and
drawing to land night-lines and trimmers. 21. Bod,
with the line ready fixed and shotted for float-fishing.
22. Creel, pannier, or fishing-basket. 23. Angler's
pocket-book.

Of the various baits used in angling; the following
are the principal. The dew, garden, and lob-worm,
though differing considerably in form and colour,
according to the nature of the earth in which they
are found, are of the same species. They are better
suited for the angler's purpose after they have been
kept a few days in damp moss, as they then scour
themselves, and become tougher. A piece of com-
mon brick, pounded small and moistened, may be
added to the moss, as it assists to scour them. The
brandling, so called from having brands or stripes
across the body, is smaller than the lob-worm, and
of a deeper red colour. It is found in old dung-hills

and heaps of old tanner's bark. It is a good "bait for
small trout, perch, and par.

Maggots, or gentles, as they are mostly called by
South-country anglers, may be bred by any person
who requires them, by exposing a piece of offal to
be blown on by flies. A stock may be preserved for
winter use by putting a November brood, well sup-
plied with bran, into a cellar or cool place, where
they are not likely to be killed by the frost. When
angling with gentles, it is best to keep them amongst
bran in a small tin box. In fly-fishing for trout, a
gentle, on the point of a hook, is sometimes used,
with a hackle, to considerable advantage. The young
brood of wasps and bees; grubs, which are turned
up by the plough in spring ; and cad-bait or caddis-
worms — which are the larvse or maggot of two or
three kinds of flies, and found in streams, inclosed
in a case of small shells and stones, hollowed twigs,
straw, and pieces of reed— are occasionally used as
bait. The young brood of wasps and bees, when,
dried in an oven, become tough, and will keep good
for a month. Cad-bait are to be kept in their cases
in any cool place amongst damp sand.

Paste for bait used in angling for carp, chub,
roach, or dace, may be made of a piece of soft
white bread, new from the oven, dipped in honey;
or, instead of honey, loaf sugar, dissolved and sim-
mered over the fire to the consistence of syrup, and
worked with a piece of new white bread to the
consistence of a tough paste. It may be coloured,

if the angler pleases, with vermilion, red ochre, or
turmeric, accordingly as it may be wanted red or
yellow; and if he be a believer in the efficacy of
scents to allure fish, he may add to his composition
a few drops of anniseed, or any other oil, for the
learned in these matters have not yet agreed what
particular kind of oil is best.

Minnows, gudgeons, small roach, and dace, for
dead bait, are best carried amongst bran, in a tin box
divided lengthways into three partitions, as may be
seen in some cigar cases, to prevent them rubbing
against each other. This is a much better mode
than carrying them in a damp cloth, which renders
them soft, sloppy, and good for nothing.

Ground-bait for chub, roach, dace, and barbel, may
consist of small balls of clay, bran, crumb of bread,
with gentles, or greaves, cut into small pieces, worked
up together and thrown into the water. G-reaves are
refuse animal matter from which all the fat has been
extracted by boiling, and may be had of the tallow-
chandlers. Sometimes it is advisable to bait the
ground the night before. Blood from the slaughter-
house, bullock's brains, and other kinds of garbage,
are used by certain "brother bobs," to collect the fish
round their "swim." This style of angling ought to
be left to the uninterrupted enjoyment of butchers'
boys, who are familiar with the blood-kit and lay-stall,
knackers, nightmen, and such gentry as the em-
ployers of Burke and Hare, and Bishop and Wil-
liams. When fish— and those of the most worthless

135

kind, and affording the least sport —are only to be
caught by scattering clotted blood and "blowing
brains," angling, instead of being a " recreation to
the contemplative man," must be a punishment to
all save those who may be considered peculiarly
qualified for a situation in WombwelTs Menagerie
or the Zoological G-ardens — " deferre viscera urso;"
or, as the phrase is decently wrapped up in the ver
nacular, by an imitator of Dr. Johnson, "to convey
the intestines of the ox to the den of the bear."
Never, gentle reader, if you wish to merit the name
of " gentle angler," defile your hands with blood; and
never, as you hope "to print on her soft lips a
balmy kiss," or — if you be waxing hoary — as the
long-drawn kiss of first and youthful love remains
hallowed in your memory, never pollute your "mouth
by putting into it the raw brains of a sheep or an
ox. If you wish to enjoy the true pleasures of an-
gling—the pleasure of filling a large creel amidst
the inspiring solitude of hills and streams — away
with you to some lonely village, towards the head
of a trout stream, where no butcher resides within
ten miles ; where fresh mutton is only to be had
once a week, and where bullock's brains are only to
be obtained once a-year — that is, when the only
farmer in the place kills a kyloe at Martinmas, for
winter provision.

CHAPTER V.

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS.

Notwithstanding what learned antiquaries and
historians have said a"bout the name of England,
or Angle-land, "being derived from, the Angles, an ob-
scure tribe from Jutland — which, by the way, ia
never mentioned by our most ancient annalists as
forming a considerable body of the Saxon invaders
of Britain— it is not unlikely that they may all have
been hunting on a false scent. The most obvious
derivation is from Angling, the mystery of catching
fish with rod and line; an elegant branch of the fine
arts, in which the people of this country excel all
other nations, and the instinctive love of which,
becoming more intense in each succeeding genera-
tion, they probably derive, from an illustrious race
of angling ancestors, who nourished the long rod
during the Heptarchy; and from whom the seven
kingdoms, when united under one crown, were called
Aengle-land; a name in which all would cordially
agree as peculiarly appropriate, since, from St.
Michael's Mount to the Frith of Forth— which we
believe was the extent of "Old" England— they were
anglers all. Hence, natio Anglia est; and till the

137

Jt

end of time may the love of her children towards
the gentle art, and their skill in its exercise, continue
to render the name appropriate ;— for so all piscatory
authors, "booksellers, publishers, and tackle-makers,
are in duty "bound to pray. The conjecture that
the name Anglia, or Aengle-land, is derived from
"angling," -will "be considerably strengthened
when we consider that the more ancient name,
Britannia, is most probably derived from Britthyl,
a trout, meaning the country abounding in trouts;
a much more feasible etymology than that of Hum-
phrey Lhuyd, who derives it from Pryd and Cam,
fertile and fair: a far-fetched etymology, for which
Buchanan — a savage with the rod, as the royal
breech of James VI. could testify — scourges him
soundly. The change of name, from Land of Trouts
to Land of Anglers, is at once simple and natural,
and exactly what a philosophical etymologist would
be most likely to infer. Let any person look at the
map of England, including in his survey Scotland,
Ireland, and the Principality ,— that is, if he have not
personally visited each country, which every gentle-
man, at least, ought to do before making the tour of
Europe — and from the brooks, becks, and burns
which he will see rising in all directions, and
winding through the country, at last forming a noble
river,— capable of bearing on its bosom the native oak,
which erst shaded its banks, but now formed, to bear
Britannia's thunders, and " to quell the depths below,"
—and he will directly perceive, from the very physical

n of the country, that England is peculiarly
o form a race of anglers. The very cli-
mate, which certain foreigners decry as "being dull
and cloudy, is decidedly in favour of the angler; for,
notwithstanding the number and excellence of our
streams, had we the clear atmosphere and cloudless
skies of Italy, the fly-fisher's occupation would, in a
great measure, "be gone. Above all other classes of
Englishmen, the fly-fisher has most reason to be satis-
fied with the climate of his own country; and were a
course of angling to form — as it ought — a branch of
liberal education, we should not have so many ab-
sentees mis-spending their money and their time,
and losing the freshness of honest English feeling
in the enervating climate and degraded society of
Italy.

" O, native Britain ! O, my mother Isle !
How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and

holy

To me, who from thy lakes and mountain hills,
Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks, and seas,
Have drunk in all my intellectual life,
ATI sweet sensations, all ennobling thoughts,
All adoration of the God in nature,
All lovely and all honourable things,
Whatever makes this mortal spirit feel
The joy and greatness of its future being!"*

Under the term "Angling," Professor Rennie in-
cludes all kinds of fishing with a hook, in salt water

* Coleridge, Fears in Solitude.

'.., -

139

as well as in fresh ; and it must be admitted—though
the fact militates against our derivation of Anglia
from " Angling,"— that the people of Sussex, about
678, were so ignorant of the "gentle art," that the
only fish that they knew how to catch were eels, which
they probably managed to capture after the primitive
fashion of "bobbing" with a pottle of hay. St. Wil-
fred, however, taught them the art of fishing with
nets, and with hooks and lines ; and thus enabled
them, at a period of famine, to procure a supply of
food from their own rivers and bays. " This Bishop,"
says the venerable Bede, who records the event,
" gained the affections of the people of Sussex to a
wonderful degree by teaching them this useful art;
and they listened the more willingly to his preach-
ing from whom they had received so great a bene-
fit." St. Wilfred probably acquired his knowledge
of sea-fishing at Lindisfarn or Holy Island, where he
was educated; and, as angling was allowed to eccle-
siastics as a recreation, it is not unlikely that the
Saint may have fished fly for salmon in the Tyne,
when he was bishop of Hexham.

Sea-fishing, with hook and line, though compre-
hended by Professor Rennie under the general term
"Angling," does not come within the scope of oar
" Souvenir," otherwise, we might here insert certain
" Recollections of Cod-fishing," which, perchance, might
prove more lengthy than interesting. We will, how-
ever, do better; we will embellish this portion of
the volume with a few illustrations of coast scenery,

an scarcely fail of exciting most pleasing
sea-side reminiscences. Behold the joint effect
of Topham's pencil and Beckwith's "burin, and read
the description of Crabbe":

"Turn to the watery world!— "but who to thee
(A wonder yet un viewed) shall paint — the Sea?
Various and vast, sublime in all its forms,
When lulled by zephyrs, or when rous'd by storms,
Its colours changing, when from clouds and sun
Shades after shades upon the surface run;
Embrowned and horrid .now, and now serene,
In limpid blue and evanescent green ;
And oft the foggy banks on ocean lie,
Lift the far sail, and cheat th 'experienced eye.

"Be it the summer noon: a sandy space
The ebbing tide has left upon its place ;
Then just the hot and stony beach above
Light twinkling streams in bright confusion move ;
(For heated thus, the warmer air ascends
And with the cooler in its fall contends.)
Then the broad bosom of the ocean keeps
An equal motion; swelling as it sleeps,
Then slowly sinking, curling to the strand,
Faint lazy waves o'ercreep the ridgy sand,
Or tap the tarry boat with gentle -blow,
And back return in silence, smooth and slow.
Ships in the calm seem anchored; for they glide
On the still sea, urged solely by the tide."

But, — having thus taken a glimpse of the
sea, — to return to our fresh-water angling. —
Previous to enumerating the fish which are prin-

141

cipally caught in the rivers and lakes of England
by angling, it may perhaps he of some service to
the angler to give a brief sketch of their arrange-
ment, according to the system of Linnaeus. This
distinguished naturalist divides fishes proper— that
is, such as breathe wholly by means of gills— into
four Orders, which he discriminates by the absence
or by the position of certain fins, considered by him
analogous with the feet of quadrupeds.

The first Order— Apodes, or Footless, comprises
such fish as are without the pair of ventral fins
which are found on the lower part of the body, be-
tween the vent and the mouth in all the other
orders. Of this order the eel affords a familiar
example.

The second Order— Jugulares — have the ventral
fins placed more forward than the pectoral fins, —
which are those immediately behind the gills,— and
as it were, under the jugulum or throat. The cod
is an example of this order.

The third Order— Thoracici— have the ventral fins
placed under the pectoral, on what may be considered
the thorax or breast; as in the perch.

The fourth Order— Abdominales— have the ventral
fins placed on the abdomen or lower part of the
belly, a little before the vent, as in the salmon.

Orders are sub-divided into Genera, which are
determined by certain general marks of resemblance
in which a number of species agree. Species is the
lowest term in the series, admitting of no further

142

division, and where the individual animals com-
prising it agree with the specific definition in every
essential point; differing only from the accidents
which are the result of age, climate, disease, or food. A
familiar illustration of this artificial arrangement— for
any general point of resemblance may be assumed as
constituting a class, an order, or a genus— will be
afforded "by considering the term " Infantry" as repre-
senting an order of the class "Army." The order,
infantry, admits of ready distribution into genera,
or regiments ; the generic characteristic being assumed
from the facings, their clothing being considered
as a natural covering. The light and grenadier com-
panies may be regarded as two species ; and the in-
dividuals of the centre companies will form a third;
the specific distinctions of the two former being
the green bob, and the broad epaulets, respectively.
The finer coats and the sashes of the officers may
represent the accidental appearances constituting
varieties, which framers of systems and catalogue-
makers of natural history are so much puzzled to
account for. In this illustration, it is to be observed,
that "homo/' the genus summum of the class, is
to be considered of the common gender, as defined
by all grammarians from Priscian to Dr. Busby.

It will be perceived from the following list, that the
genera which afford most sport to the angler are the
Salmo and the Cyprinus; the number of Species
comprehended under the former Genus being twelve,
and under the latter eleven.

143

Order I.— Apodes. No ventral fins.

Genus Muraena.

Muraena Anguilla. — The Eel. Three species
found in England.

Order II. — Jugulares. Ventral fins "before the pectoral.

Genus Gadus.

Gadus Lota. Burbot or Eel-pout.

Order III. — Thoracici. Ventral fins under the pectoral.

Genus Cottus.

Cottus Gobio. Bull-head, or Miller's thumb.
Genus Perca.

Perca Fluviatilis. Perch.

. . . Cernua. Ruff or Pope.
Genus Gasterosteus.

Gasterosteus Aculeatus. Stickleback. Three
species.

Order IV. — Abdominales. Ventral fins on the ab-
domen, behind the pectoral.

Genus Salmo.

Salmo Salar The Salmon. The fry, or young
salmon, are called smouts; and, on their
return from the sea to fresh water,— -when
they mostly weigh from three to six pounds,
—they are termed grilse or gilse.

\

144

Salmo Eriox. The grey. A species of salmon
caught in some of the rivers in the north
of Scotland. It is seldom seen in England.
Some writers consider it the same as the
Sewin caught in the Welsh rivers.

. . . Hucho. Bull trout.

. . . Trutta. Sea- trout. It is pro"ba"ble that
this is identical with the hucho.

. . . Albus. Whitling, herling, or phinoc.
Supposed by some to be a young salmon.

. . . Eario. Common burn, or fresh-water trout

. . . Salmulus. Brandling, par, or samlet.

. . . Salvelinus. Torgoch or red char.

. . . Alpinus. Case char.

. . . Thymallus. Grayling.

. . . Lavaretus. G-uinaid or Schelley.

. . . Eperlanus. Smelt
Genus Esox.

Esox Lucius. Pike.
Genus Cyprinus.

Cyprinus Barbus. Barbel.

.... Carpio. Carp.

. . . . Gobio. Gudgeon.

.... Tinea. Tench.

.... Cephalus, or Jeses. Chub.

.... Phoxinus. Minnow.

. . . . Leuciscus. Dace.

.... Butilus. Roach.

.... Orfus. Bud. Supposed to be only a
variety of the roach.

145

Cyprinus Alburnus. -Bleak
. . . . Brama. Bream.
Genus Cobitis.

Cobitis Barbatula. Loach.

Of the above species, some, such as the char, are
seldom taken with the rod and line. The burbot is
mostly caught by setting night lines ; and such " small
gear" as the loach, minnow, and stickleback, are
only taken by the angler for bait or by boys for
amusement. The miller's thumb is seldom or never
expressly angled for; but is .occasionally caught
when angling for other fish.

As angling is in its very essence an art of de-
ceiving, and as the fish which are most deserving of
the angler's attention are extremely shy, whoever
wishes to catch them must keep himself as
much out of their sight as he can. He who treats
the fish to a view of the whole process of fitting
the rod, screwing or tying on the reel, putting on
his flies, or baiting his hooks as he sits upon a
bank which overlooks the stream, ought to com-
mence his operations at least half a mile farther
off. An angler showing himself on the banks
of a trout-stream, when the water is clear, ope-
rates as a general warning for every fish to take
care of himself. An immediate spread takes place,
similar to that of the group of authors on the ap-
pearance of a bailiff— as the scene is somewhere so
graphically sketched by Dr. Johnson— each suspect-

u

J

146

ing himself to be the party "wanted." A novice,
who has heard or read that the perfection of the
angler's art is " to fish fine and far off," is often fond of
making his first essays with a long line, even in a
stream, which he might command with a line the
length of his rod. As might be expected, he entan-
gles his line in some part of his dress, — about his
hat, the buttons at the back of his coat, or at its
cuffs ; and if there be a bush or tree within reach he
is sure to catch it. When he does succeed in making
a long cast it is without his tail fly or stretcher, which
he is certain to crack off in making his return
stroke, which he fetches, with might and main, at the
water, weilding his rod like a forge-hammer. Though
it be true that to fish fine and far off is the test of
an angler's skill in the management of his rod, yet
no proficient in the art will use a long line when a
short one will serve his purpose. If the object be to
catch trout, the way to succeed is not by throwing
a long line, however lightly, five or six yards beyond
where they lie. Though wading be sometimes ne-
cessary,— either when the line cannot be thrown
clear, on account of trees and bushes on the banks
of a stream, or when that part of the water where
the fish lie cannot be otherwise reached— yet no
person of sense will wet his feet when he may
follow his sport dry-shod. Water-proof boots are
generally recommended to " waders," and they who
like them may use them. In our opinion, the
angler can wade in nothing better than shoes and

8»

147

stockings, always carrying with him in his creel,
when he expects that he will have to take the
water, a pair of felt soles, and a pair of lambs-wool
stockings or socks. Thin plaid trowsers are much
"better to wade in than thick milled kerseymeres,
which after they are wet, "become as stiff as a
board. Gentlemen to whom the dampness of their
nether garments is peculiarly annoying, should put
them off when they wade, taking care to secure
their purse in the coat or waistcoat pocket, lest
some dishonest person should steal their trowsers,
an'd thus p]ace them in a most awkward predica-
ment.

SALMON.

The salmon, above all other fish, both from its
value and the sport afforded in its capture, is the
most worthy of the angler's attention ; and to hook
and kill a fine fresh-run lively fish of this species,
weighing from seven to seventeen pounds, requires
the exertion of all his patience and skill. Owing to
the scarcity of this fish in the south of England,
angling for salmon, either with fly, worm, or min-
now, is seldom practised south of the Tees. In the
northern counties, where they are more plentiful
the Tyne, in Northumberland, and the Eden and the
Derwent, in Cumberland, are the rivers which afford
the best chance of success to the salmon fisher. A good
many salmon are caught with the rod in the Tweed,

148

during the season, "between Berwick and Peebles;
but he who wishes to enjoy the sport in its greatest
perfection must go farther a-field, and locate him-
self for a month "beyond the Tay, or in the wilds
of Cunnemara. With respect to salmon-fishing in
Wales, two recent authors, who "both profess to
speak from experience, disagree ; the one telling the
angler that he must expect no good salmon-fishing
in the Principality, while the other represents it as
excellent in more streams than any angler — who
commences salmon-fishing when he comes of age,
and hangs up his rod when about seventy, devoting
three months in each year to the sport, and fishing
each stream thoroughly— can hope to get through in
his life-time.

"'Tis really painful here to see
Experienced doctors disagree."

Fresh run salmon, that is, clean fish from the
sea, begin, in small numbers, to enter most rivers
in the north of England and in the south of Scotland,
about January, if the season be mild; their numbers
increasing during the spring months. In severe
winters, and when the streams are full from the
melting of the snow, their appearance is propor-
tionately delayed, as the salmcn has an aversion to
snow broth. In some rivers their appearance is
from a month to six weeks later than in others ; and
there are streams which they never enter till April,
though they ascend others which discharge them-
selves into the same estuary in January.

149

The advance-guard of the main body of salmon
begin to ascend above the tide-way about March
in early rivers, and enter the fresh water; and
during this and the three succeeding months of
April, May, and June, is the best time for an-
gling for salmon within ten or twelve miles
of the highest point of the river to which the
tide flows. About July, they begin to push up
towards the higher parts of the river, and now
enter its smaller subsidiary streams, gradually as-
cending towards their sources, during the months of
August, September, and October, as floods afford them
opportunity of passing the falls, wiers, and shallows
Should the weather be frosty, the early fish common-
ly begin spawning in November, though the greater
number spawn in December and January. Grilse,
the young of the salmon,— which descend as smouts
or salmon-fry from the spawning ground to the sea
in April and May,— return to the rivers about the
middle of June; and again descend to the sea in
September. Grilse, which on their first appearance
weigh from two to four pounds, and increase during
their abode in fresh water to six or seven, take
a smaller kind of salmon-fly, dressed on a hook,
No. 4, 5, or 6, according to the state of the water.
They may also be angled for with lob-worms, a
minnow, or a par's tail,

Salmon in ascending a river, mostly keep in the
middle of the stream avoiding the shore, and sel-
dom making any stay in pools or weils which are

much shaded, either with steep rocky banks or
trees. They are most likely to "be found a little
"below weirs and falls, and towards the head of
large pools. As salmon never, or at least very rarely,
rise at the fly when the water is clear and unruffled,
the angler need not be apprehensive of disturbing
them by wading ; for when the water is in such a
state as to afford him the greatest chance of success,
they will not be very likely to notice him at the
distance of twenty yards. When the angler knows
that salmon are in a pool, he must not be content
with making two or three casts, as directed by mere
book-makers, who probably may never have seen a
salmon caught, but fish the pool diligently again
and again, making his casts frequent; and, should
he not succeed with one fly, try another of a dif-

are disconsolately singing, from morning to night,
"O, for him "back again," — with a touch of the senti-
mental, either in verse or prose, accordingly as he
may "be "i' the vein."

With a twenty-fee b salmon rod— a twig which
requires two hands, and cannot be nourished about
as a gentleman switches his cane— an expert angler
will find no difficulty in casting twenty-five yards
of line, if the banks of the river be clear of wood;
and if the wind be direct in his favor, he will be
able to cast five yards more. It is generally the
safest way to strike as soon as the salmon descends
after having seized the fly; for when he has once
taken it in his mouth and made a downward plunge
there is nothing to be gained by giving him time,
which only affords him an opportunity of blowing
it out again should he not have hooked himself.
In the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," article "An-
gling,"— which must have been written by a down-
right ignoramus, wholly unacquainted with the art
of which he pretends to treat, and, from the shame-
ful literary errors which have been permitted to
pass uncorrected, revised by a careless editor— is
the following direction : " When you imagine that
the salmon has been struck, be cautious in giving
him time sufficient to enable him to pouch hia
bait, that is, swallow it fairly or securely; after this,
fix the hook in him by a gentle twitch." A passage
betraying greater ignorance of the art of angling was

152

never penned. The doer must have read, that pike,
when trolled for with the dead gorge, are to be allowed
time to pouch the "bait; and he sagely directs, that
after the salmon has "been " struck," he is to be
allowed time to take the hook out of his jaw, then
swallow it fairly and securely — no mumbling it like
an old crust allowed; — and when the hook is thus
comfortably lodged in his stomach, and the pro-
cess of digestion is commenced, it is to be fixed,
for the second and last time, by a " gentle twitch."
The steadiness and self-possession required to
manage a salmon after he is hooked; the peculiar
tact with which the angler now yields to the rush
of the fish, now holds hard when he appears to be
growing weak, are only to be acquired by practice,
as they can no more be taught by mere precept
than the art of dancing on the tight rope. To tell
a novice to be steady when he has hooked a sal-
mon for the first time — now to give him line, now
to hold him in— is like telling a young ensign, who
has never smelt powder but on field-days, to be
cool and collected in his first battle; or a cockney
not to be frightened when first a covey of par-
tridges starts up before him, within ten yards of
his nose. Favour us, gentle reader, with your pa-
tience for five minutes, while we attempt to give a
sketch of salmon-fishing, which will embody all the
practical information on the subject of catching a
salmon which we can convey; and to secure your
attention the better, you shall be the hero of the tale.

You are staying at an inn, or at a friend's house,
on the banks of some river — say the Tweed, the
Tyne, the Spey, or the Costello— for the sake of
salmon-fishing. There has been a soaking rain
of eight hours' duration on the Tuesday, which
has brought the salmon up, and at six o'clock on
Thursday- morning -—with a pleasant breeze from
the south-west; as much blue in the sky as will
make trowsers for every man in the Royal Navy;
and a cloud occasionally shading the sun's face
— your fly is making his first circuit across the
berry-brown water of a pool in which you know
there are at least twenty salmon. For upwards of
an hour you flog that half mile of water till your
arms ache, but without success, the fish not yet
being disposed to take breakfast. As an excuse for
resting yourself, you sit down for twenty minutes,
and change your fly, putting on our No. 1, hare's
lug and bittern's wing. You return to the water
again, and ere the new fly has gone the circuit thrice,
he is served with a special retainer, in the shape of
a salmon, which, judging from his pull, you estimate
at thirty pounds, the largest and strongest, as you
verily believe, that you ever hooked. With that
headlong plunge, as if he meant to bury his
head in the gravelly bottom, he has hooked him-
self. Your hook, which will hold thirty pounds
dead weight, is buried in his jaws to the bend, and
now that he feels the barb, he shoots up the stream
with the swiftness of an arrow, and fifty yards of

check him. Now his speed is somewhat diminished,
hold on a little, and, as the river side is clear of
trees, follow up after him, for it is "bad policy to let
out line to an unmanageable length, when you can
follow your fish. There are some awkward rocks
towards the head of the pool which may cut your
line ; turn him, therefore, as soon as you can. Now is
the time to show your tact, in patting your tackle
to the test without having it snapt "by a sudden
spring. Hold gently — ease off a little — now hold again
—how beautifully the rod bends, true from top to butt
in one uniform curve !— He has a mouth, though bitted
for the first time. Bravo! his nose is down the
water! Lead him along. — Gently, he grows restive,
and is about again. Though his course is still up
the stream, he seems inclined to tack. Now he
shoots from bank to bank, like a Berwick smack
turning up Sea Heach in a gale of wind. Watch
him. well in stays, lest he shoot suddenly a-head,
and carry all away. He is nearing the rocks— give
him the butt and turn him again. He comes round
— he cannot bear that steady pull — what excellent
tackle; lead him downwards; he follows reluctantly,
but he is beginning to fag. Keep winding up
your line as you lead him along. He is inclined
to take a rest at the bottom., but, as you hope to
land him, do not grant him a moment. Throw in a
large stone at him, but have both your eyes open
—one on your rod and the other on the place where

155

the fish lies — lest he make a rush when you are
stooping for a stone, and break loose. Great, at this
moment, is the advantage of the angler who has a
"cast" in his eye! That stone has startled the fish-
no rest for salmo — and now he darts to the surface.
"Up wi taily," what a leap! it is well you humoured
him "by dipping the top of your rod, or he would
have gone free. Again, and again! These are the
last efforts of despair, and they have exhausted
him. He is seized with stupor, like a stout gentle-
man who has suddenly exerted himself after dinner,
or a "boxer who has just received a swinging blow
on the jugular. Draw him towards the shore, he
can scarcely move a fin. Quick, the gaff is in his
gills, and now you have him out; and, as he lies
stretched on the pebbles, with his silver sides
think

/;'v

i

The boiling eddy see him try.
Then dashing from the current high.
Till watchful eye and cautious hand
Have led his wasted strength to land."

In angling for salmon with a minnow — a small
trout or brandling may be used for the same pur-
pose— it is necessary to use a long-shanked hook,
which is to be passed in at the mouth and brought
out between the vent and the tail ; and, to prevent
the bait slipping down this hook, a small hook,
whipped on a piece of fine gut about three inches
long, is to be attached to the link and passed
through the minnow's lips. To facilitate the spin-
ning of the minnow, it is usual to employ two
swivels, one at the junction of your first and second
length of gut, and the other at the junction of the
second and third ; with a shot, greater or smaller
according to the strength of the current, placed on
the gut, immediately above each swivel, to keep the
minnow down in the water. In spinning a minnow,
the foot-length, of gut, is generally about three
yards long. Some anglers use a conical piece of lead,
with a hole at the apex, for the gut to pass through,
which they slide down over the minnow's nose;
but this method has not any advantage over the
simpler one of placing shot above the swivels. The
manner of using this bait is to cast it across the
stream, and, as you draw it towards you, to keep
it playing by a slight motion of the rod.

157

In fishing for salmon with lob-worms, two or
three, according to their size, ought to be placed
upon the hook, which ought to be cast up the
stream and worked gently down with the current,
according to the strength of which the line is to be
shotted. When spinning a minnow, or fishing with
the worm for salmon, it is customary to use a
stiffer top-piece than in fishing fly. When a salmon
is hooked by either of the former methods, he is
to be managed in the same manner as in fly-fish-
ing. There is no rod or tackle, that we have ever
seen, which will enable an angler to throw a sal-
mon of twenty pounds weight, over his head, as he
would whisk out a trout when shade-fishing. The
best time of the day for salmon-fishing is from six
in the morning till eleven in the forenoon, and from
four in the afternoon till dusk ; but when the water
and weather are favorable, they may be angled for
at any hour between sun-rise and sun-set. The
angler who in one day has the skill and good for-
tune to land four salmon, each upwards of seven
pounds, though he may have toiled for them from
dawn till evening, has no just cause to grumble, and to
represent the water as not worth fishing. An amateur
angler, who has thrice in the course of ten years
taken eight salmon in one day, is entitled to give
a minute detail of each day's proceedings, and catch
his salmon over again, in all companies, social,
philosophical, or literary. Before taking leave of
the salmon, we beg to correct an error of the press

158

in the second series of Mr. Jesse's interesting
"Gleanings," of which, compared with the "har-
vesting" of some others, it may "be said that "the
gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim are better than
the vintage of Abiezer." It is there stated, page 305,
that " the ovarium of a salmon will produce
20,000,000 ova." This requires correction, by cutting
off the three last ciphers, and making the number
20,000 instead of 20,000,000. Twenty millions of the
ova of a salmon ready to spawn would weigh about
four hundred pounds. The number of ova in salmon
is, according to the size of the fish, from fifteen to
twenty-five thousand.

In the annexed engraving, an angler is repre-
sented— evidently from Cockney shire, as may be
suspected from his neck bare, a la Byron, white
drills and pumps, and his basket slung over the
wrong shoulder — making, with a gudgeon-rod, his
first essay in fly-fishing, bending forward in elegant
attitude, as if he were angling in the Lea, and a
lady on the opposite side admiring him. The scene
is in Wales, and the spot where he has thrown hia
fly seems a likely one for both salmon and trout,
and worthy of being fished by a greater proficient.

THE GREY.

The Salmo Eriox, or Grey, which enters some of
the rivers in the north of Scotland, about August,
is little known in the rivers south of the "Forth,

r

m

though occasionally a solitary one is caught in the
Tweed. Martin, in his "History of the Western
Islands of Scotland," 2d edition, 1716, thus speaks of
it. " The grey lord, alias "black-mouth, a fish of the
size and shape of a salmon, takes the limpet for a
bait. There is another way of angling for this fish,
by fastening a short white down of a goose behind
the hook; and the boat being continually rowed,
the fish run greedily after the down and are easily
caught."

BULL-TROUT, SEA-TROUT, AND WHITLING-,

The bull-trout, sea- trout, and whitling— -the two
former being probably of the same species — begin
to run up the rivers about May, and return to the
sea in September. They will all take both fly and
worm, and are to be angled for in the same manner
as for the salmon, and with similar flies dressed on
smaller hooks. The whitling is most abundant in
the rivers which discharge themselves into Solway
Frith; and many are caught every season in the
Tweed and most of its tributary streams. In the
northern counties of Scotland, they are called fin,
nocks, and are not so large as those caught in the
streams or on the border, where they are frequently
caught sixteen inches long, and weighing two
pounds; in Aberdeen and Perthshire they seldom
exceed a foot.

160

In lake-fishing for large trout, such as Salmo
ferox, of Loch Awe, •with a small trout for bait, snap
hooks whipped on strong gimp, are to be preferred.
An excellent snap, of four hooks, is made thus :— To
the end of your gimp whip a stout No. 4 hook;
and a little higher up, on the same gimp, another
hook a size or two smaller, so that the two may
stand back to back, and the bend of the uppar one
a quarter of an inch above the shank of the lower.
On another piece of gimp, whip two more hooks in
a similar manner: and an inch above the shank of
the upper hook make a small loop on the end of
the gimp. To bait the hook, put the end of the
longest gimp into the gills of the small trout,
and bring the end out at its mouth; do the saoae
with the shorter piece at the other gill, and pass
the end of the longer gimp through the loop of the
shorter, which loop is to be drawn into the fish's
mouth. Slip a small leaden bead down the length
of gimp into the mouth, and sew it up. Stick the
lower hooks slightly into the skin of the fish that
they may lie fair, and the bait is ready. If it be
thought necessary, in large bait, six or eight hooks
may be used in the same way, having the lowest
reaching nearly to the taiL The artificial bait, called
a devil, formed of silk and silver twist, and having
a tin tail, slightly curved, to make it spin better,
and armed with a bristling array of hooks, is some-
times usedy in the same manner as a spinning bait
in fishing for large trout. Two or three, of different

161

colours, should always form part of the contents of
the angler's pocket-hook, as they are ready for use
at times when a minnow cannot he had.

COMMON, OR BURN TROUT.

The common, or "burn trout continues in the fresh
water all the year, without visiting the sea, and
may he angled for with either fly or worm, from
March till Novemher; hut the best time is from
April to July; though after a heavy rain towards the
end of the latter month, if the water has been for
two or three weeks low, in consequence of drought,
the angler will * sometimes take more in a single
day than in any day of the months preceding ; but
on the whole, angling is not so good, and from this
month trout are less frequently caught, and in
smaller numbers. Trout do not generally appear
inclined to feed about mid-day; and the most likely
'time to catch them is before nine in the morning
and after four in the afternoon. What has been pre-
viously said respecting the most favourable state of
the weather and water for salmon-fishing will also
apply to trout-fishing, with this addition, that trout
may be angled for when the water is becoming dis-
coloured as weJl as when it is clearing after rain;
which is not generally the case with the salmon, as
it is the flood which brings the new fish up.

An angler who wishes to obtain a dish of trouts
will not wait till they are inclined to take the arti-
ficial fly, provided he can fairly hook them by avail-

162

ing himself of other means. In days when the
water is clear and smooth — not a breeze stirring to
curl its surface— and when there is not the slightest
chance of success with the artificial fly, the shade-
fisher will not unfrequently bring home a dozen
or two of good trouts. In shade-fishing, the angler
ought to use a stiff rod and a line strong enough to
lift out a trout the moment he is struck; and for bait
we know nothing better than gentles. The best situa-
tions for practising this method of angling are the
banks of streams shaded by trees and bushes that
conceal the angler from the sight of the trouts
which are taking their ease in the pool below, lei-
surely opening their mouths and plying their gills
as if between sleeping and waking. Having put a
couple of gentles on his hook, let the angler warily
make his way through the bushes, and project his
rod as imperceptibly as the motion of the shadow
on the dial; and drop his hook as gently as a
caterpillar lowers himself from the branch of a lime
tree to the ground. A fine portly-looking trout, who
would not spring at the most tempting fly, as re-
quiring too much exertion, skulls himself, with two
or three gentle strokes of his tail, towards the dainty
morsel, wnich he tips over as you, gentle reader,
would an oyster; and, just as he is descending, he
feels a slight tickling in his throat; and before he
can ascertain the cause, he finds himself in another
element, flying like a bird through the alders that
shade his native stream.

s

163

In clear water it is sometimes advantageous,
when there is a light "breeze, to use two natural
flies, with a fine line, putting a small hook through
them, under the wings, so that they may lie with
their heads in opposite directions, and allowing
them to "be lightly blown across the stream, or
carried down with the current. When using the
blowing line it is necessary to employ a reel. Worras,
either lob or "brandling, are an excellent "bait for
trout when the water is rather discoloured ; and
even when it is clear trout will frequently take the
worm in streamy parts of a river or a "burn, when
they will not take the fly. When worms are used,
the "bait is to be thrown up the stream and worked
gradually down-wards to the extent of the
angler's line.

In swift-running streams, the fresh-water or burn
trout seldom attains to the weight of five pounds ;
and, in such streams, in the North of England and
in Scotland, by far the greater number of trouts
caught weigh less than half a pound each. In the
Thames, between Teddington and Windsor, very
large fresh-water trouts are sometimes caught.
Within the last twelve months three have been
caught, two with the net, and one with the rod and
fly, each of which weighed upwards of twelve pounds.
The annexed beautiful engraving of a large trout,
from a painting by A. Cooper, R. A. is a " portrait" of
a well-fed five-pounder, which was caught by the
artist himself, in the Wandle, in May, 1834.

164

BRANDLING-TROUT, PAR, or SAMLET.

The brandling trout, par, samlet, fingerling, rack-
rider, sampson, shedder, and last-spring, are the
various names by which this little fish, that has
so much puzzled ichthyologists to discover his pa-
rentage, is known in different parts of the kingdom.
One -writer is disposed to believe that brandlings
are the young of the sea-trout; another believes
them to be the produce of a trout and a salmon; a
third says that they are the young of such salmon
as have been prevented from returning to the sea;
a fourth, that they are all milters or males, conse-
quently a cross between two different species; and
a fifth, having discovered the fact that they are of
both sexes, concludes that they are a distinct spe-
cies; and as such we will consider them until the
observations of experienced ichthyologists shall have
decided their true pedigree. The name brandling, or
fingerling, is derived from nine or ten marks, of a
dusky bluish colour, like the impression of fingers,
upon its sides. They are supposed to visit the sea,
as they generally make their appearance in rivers
about April, and disappear in November. On their
first appearance they are between five and six inches
long ; and very few nine inches long are taken at
any time, the average being about seven Brand-
lings are sometimes caught in January and February,
returning to the sea, weak and emaciated, after
spawning.

The brandling is a bold little fish, and •will rise
at a fly large enough for a grilse. They may be
angled for with any small flies, and they bite gree-
dily at a half-hackle, with a maggot on the point of
a hook, which ought to be allowed to sink a little
below the surface of the water. A brandling- worm is
also a tempting bait for them at all times when
they are disposed to feed. Brandlings are numerous
in the rivers that discharge themselves into the
Solway Frith; and in the Eden, in the neighbour-
hood of Carlisle, great numbers are caught every
season. Marks similar to those on the brandling-
trout may be perceived on the sides of the salmon-
fry, when the scales are rubbed off. The par-tail,
which is the lower half of a brandling-trout, used
in the same manner as in spinning a minnow, is a
most excellent bait for pike and large trout; and
one more killing the angler cannot use.

CHAB.

Char, which are taken in the lakes of Winder-
mere, Conistone, and Buttermere, in England, and
also in some of the lakes of Scotland and Wales,
will sometimes take the fly, and are also angled for
with worms, gentles, and cad-bait. They are so
seldom taken with the rod, that it is scarcely worth
the angler's while trying for them. The best place
for angling for case Char, is in the Brathay, at the
head of Windermere, which they enter in September,
for the purpose of spawning.

r-\

m

GRAYLING.

The grayling, which is not a common species, is
mostly caught in the western counties of England.
It is also caught in the Dove, in Derbyshire, and in
several of the tributaries of the Trent; in the Derwent,
the Wharfe, the Bye, the Ure, and the Wiske, in
Yorkshire. It is not found in Ireland, nor in Scotland ;
and, though the Rev. Mr. Lowe represents it as being
frequently caught in the Orkneys, in salt water, we
are much disposed to think that he means some
other fish, known there by the same name. The
grayling will take any of the flies usually employed
in angling for trout, as well as cad-bait, gentles, and
worms. Though Walton says that he will bite at a
minnow, we never knew one taken with such a bait.
The grayling spawns in May, and is in greatest
perfection from September to .Christmas.

GUINIAD OR SCHELLEY.

This species, mostly caught in lakes, is called, in
Wales, the guiniad> and, in Cumberland, the schelley.
It is probably the powan of the Scottish, and the
pollan of the Irish lakes. They seldom, exceed a foot
in length, and, in the appearance of the mouth, they
resemble the herring. They swim in shoals; and,
in Ullswater, where great quantities are caught with
the net, and afterwards potted, and sold as char,
upwards of a thousand are sometimes taken at a
single haul. Sometimes a few descend into the river

as.

% •". f-1, r /-TV.O--

in the lake, they are angled for with the artificial
fly, the same as for small trout.

SMELTS.

Smelts are caught in most rivers frequented by
salmon, and their common length is about seven
inches. They enter rivers from the sea, about the be-
ginning of winter, and are said to spawn in March.
They are mostly angled for, from March to August,
and usually with a paternoster line, so called from
the number of hooks, usually eight or ten, placed on
the line, at a regular distance from each other, like
the paternoster beads on the rosary, or " prayer-
tally," of Roman Catholics. The hooks, No. 9, to
stand better from the line, ought to be whipped to
a fine brisile, five or six inches long. Smelts will
take shrimps, their natural food, at the mouths of
rivers; brandling worms, or gentles; but a preferable

bait is a piece of one of their own species.

PIKE.

Next to the salmon and the trout, the pike
affords the angler the greatest sport, in all the
various modes of angling for him; the principal
of which may be comprised under, 1. Trolling, in
its most restricted sense, of fishing with the dead
bait, and double gorge hook. 2. Live-bait fishing

when a float is used on the line. 3. Snap fishing,
•with either a live or dead "bait. In trolling, a
rod about fourteen feet long is commonly used,
with a stouter top piece than is employed in
fly-fishing, and provided with wider and stronger
rings for the line to run through. A reel is neces-
sary, and the line, which ought to "be a strong one,
of silk, or silk and hair, should not he less than forty
yards. The bait may be almost any small fish;
dace, reach, trout, par, gudgeon, or bleak. The hook
used is a double one, of the kind commonly called
eel hooks, the points of which stand more outwards
than in others; the shank is fastened to a short
piece, about two or three inches, of twisted brass
wire, which is covered with lead from within an inch
of the eye at its top, to half-way down the shank of
the hook. To the eye in the brass wire about nine
inches of strong gimp is made fast, and attached by a
loop to the line. To bait this hook it is necessary
to use a baiting needle, which is a kind of long bod-
kin, sharpened at the point, the other end being
turned into a small hook, instead of having an eye.
Hooking the baiting needle to the loop of the gimp,
pass it through the body of the perch, dace, roach,
or gudgeon, intended for the bait, entering it at the
mouth, and bringing it out at the fork of the
tail. Draw the gimp through till the hooks lie
on each side of the mouth of the bait. To pre-
vent the bait slipping aown the hook, when trolling,
tie the tail with a piece of white silk or thread,

to the gimp. Loop now the gimp to the line, and
commence trolling as soon as you please. Some
anglers recommend that the mouth of the bait
should be sewed up, though for what purpose
we never yet could clearly make out. Let the angler
make it a general rule never to adopt fanciful con-
trivances when he can make more simple tackle do,
nor to attend to fiddle-faddle directions, which only
give additional trouble, without answering any useful
purpose. He is the best angler who can catch the moat
fish with the simplest contrivances; and he is an
ass who goes out loaded with complicated tackle
to catch fish which are not worth dressing, and
which any school-boy can take with an untrimmed
hazel-rod, a halfpenny- worth of twine for a line, a far-
thing hook, and, for a float, an old cork— which has
done service for an age in repressing the sallies of
his grandmother's or maiden aunt's small beer.
To return to our trolling. — When all is ready, the
bait is to be cast into the water, near to where pike
are likely to lie, the angler, as he draws it towards
him, now letting it sink, and now raising it towards
the surface. AB the pike, in seizing the bait, does
not immediately swallow it, but makes off to some
distance to pouch it, the angler must give him line
freely. After the pike has had what the angler con-
siders sufficient time — in giving which he must fre-
quently be guided by the motions of his prey —
let him strike, and, if he hooks the fish, let him
manage and land him in the best manner he can.

170

When a fish runs off with the "bait and continues
quiet for eight or ten minutes, then let the angler
strike ; he will not he likely to gain any advantage
by giving more time; and "master jack," that he may
" swallow the bait safely and securely," as a learned
Theban says of the salmon, ought not to be allowed
less. In trolling, baits of different sizes may be
used, from a small gudgeon to a roach eight -or nine
inches long. A large bait is most tempting to large
fish, but a small one affords the best chance of
hooking them.

In fishing for pike with live bait, roach and gud-
geon are generally preferred, the former as being the
most lively upon the hook and most durable, and the
latter as most tempting from September to Christmas.
Where roach or gudgeon cannot be obtained, any of
the fish mentioned as bait in trolling may be em-
ployed. In live-bait fishing, it is advisable to use
a longer rod than in trolling, in order that the
angler, when necessary, may drop or swing the bait to
a considerable distance into the water, since to cast
it as in trolling would be very likely to render the
term "live bait" a misnomer. The hooks, whether
single, No. 4, or double, No. 5, are to be whipped on
gimp ; the line is to be shotted, to keep the bait
down, and a float is to be used, large enough to sus-
pend the fish. The single hook is used in two ways ;
either by passing it through the lips of the fish
at the side of the mouth, or by passing it through
the back immediately under the fore part of the

171

back fin, taking care that it does not enter too deep
and so kill the fish. The double hook, which may
be obtained forged on one shank, at the tackle-
maker's, or formed by tying two single hooks back
to back, requires to be fixed by a baiting-needle.
Hooking the needle through the loop of the gimp,
pass it under the skin, a little behind the gills and
above the pectoral fin; and bring it out at the poste-
rior extremity of the back fin; draw the gimp
through till the shank of the hooks is entered and
the points lie flat, on what is called the shoulder of
the fish. Though. this is not so simple a mode of
using the live-bait as either of the former, and
though the bait sooner dies, some anglers consider
that it affords a greater chance of hooking pike,
which always swallow the bait with the head fore-
most. In fishing with the live bait in any of the
above modes, the pike is to be allowed time to
pouch the bait, as in trolling with the dead gorge.

In snap-fishing, whether using a live or dead bait,
the angler strikes directly he feels the fish pull; and
it is this, with the number of hooks used to render
it effective, which constitutes the difference between
snap-fishing and the other two modes, trolling
and live-bait fishing, previously described. A most
effective snap is that with four hooks, described
at p. 160, in treating of lake-fishing for large trout.
A double snap hook, to be used with a live bait,
may be made as follows. Whip to a foot? of gimp

172

two hooks, No. 4. each of which has been previously
tied to a piece of twisted wire, about an inch and a
quarter long, back to back, and between them a small
one, No. 7 or 8. In baiting this snap, the small
hook is to be passed through the back of the fish
under the fin, and the larger hooks allowed to hang
down on each side. A dead snap may be formed by
whipping two hooks, No. 4 or 5, or larger if thought
necessary, to a length of gimp, so that the points
may stand distant from each other about a quarter
of a circle. Pass a baiting needle in at the vent of
the bait and out at the mouth, and draw the gimp
through till the hooks lie close to the body; slip a
leaden bead down the gimp and into the mouth of the
fish, to make it sink, sew the mouth up, and the bait
is ready. There are several other modes of forming
snap-hooks, but the three which we have noticed will
generally be found as efficient as any other. In using
the dead- snap, the bait is to be cast into the water
and kept moving in a manner similar to trolling.
Spinning a bleak or a minnow, the same as for trout,
is a good method of angling for pike. Snap-fishing
with the dead-bait is mostly practised in spring,
and trolling from September to Christmas, when
the rivers are clear of weeds: the live.bait is kill-
ing at all times, and may be practised with success
on either mere or river. Pike will take a young frog
with the hook passed through the skin of his back,
or through his jaws, the same as in the live-bait.

5?te»°-

A variety of artificial baits for pike are sold at the
shops of fishing-tackle makers, such as mice, min-
nows, and frogs; and pike are not unfrequently
caught with a large gaudy composition of feathers
about the size of a wren, with glass beads for eyes,
and a formidable double hook for a tail.

It may not be improper here to notice the mode
of catching pike by means of a trimmer, which is
generally a circular piece of flat cork from five to
eight inches in diameter, with a groove in the edge,
in which is wound from twelve to twenty yards of
strong line. In the centre of the cork a piece of
wood is fixed, with a notch in the top for the bight
of the line to be slipped in when the trimmer is
baited, and which admits of the line being easily
pulled out when a fish seizes the bait. The hook
used may be either single or double, as in live-bait
fishing, and the bait allowed to swim at what depth
the angler pleases — generally about mid-water
where the depth does not exceed four fathoms —
by fixing a small bullet to the line. Trimmer
fishing is mostly practised on lakes and meres, and
in rivers where the water is still. Pike are caught
in every part of G-reat Britain, and are most nume-
rous in the fen-land of Norfolk, Cambridge, Lincoln,
Huntingdon. Whittlesea mere, in the latter county,
affords the best pike-fishing in the kingdom. Pike,
until they are twenty-two inches long, are, in the
south of England, commonly called jack. In some
parts of Scotland the pike is called the ged: the old

K

£

English name was the luce, and it occurs in old wri-
tings two centuries "before the reformation, when

"Turkies, hops, carp, pickarel, and beer,"

are said to have been first brought into England.
It is surprising that the lying old distich from
which the above line is quoted should have de-
ceived some modern writers, who ought to have
known better, as to the time of pike and carp being
first introduced into this country. They are both
probably indigenous. The carp is expressly men-
tioned in the book of St. Alban's, printed upwards
of twenty years, before they "were first introduced,'
as is erroneously stated, "by Mr. Leonard Mascal,
a Sussex gentleman." Pike grow to a large size,
some having been caught in this country weighing
upwards of forty pounds.

The pike, of which an admirable engraving is
here inserted, was caught by our friend Mr. Wm.
Simpson, with a live-bait, a dace, and single hook, in
the Thames, near Marlow, on 22d October last. He
was 3 ft. 4 in. long, and weighed 20 Ibs. Though he was
strong and struggled hard, yet our friend had him
ashore within twenty minutes of his seizing the bait.

PEKCH.

In bottom-fishing for perch there is scarcely a
better bait than a brandling, or a well-scoured lob-
worm, though the former is to be preferred. Two

n

n

ffi

or three hooks may he used, as they "bite freely,
and are frequently pulled out in pairs. Large perch
are caught with a small dace, gudgeon, or minnow,
used as the live-bait for pike, with the single hook
passed through the hack or the lips. When bot-
tom-fishing, have tackle strong enough to enable
you to pull them out at once, without giving them
line. Perch are commonly met with in shoals, and
when they begin to bite, the angler may generally
reckon on a large take. They appear to be a stupid
fish, for it certainly requires very little skill to catch
them. When a school-boy, we recollect catching six
dozen, all that were in the pool, one evening be-
tween six and eight o'clock, when the water was so
clear that we could see them hasten to seize the
bait directly it was thrown in, as if contending — like
steam-boat passengers, — who should be first ashore.
Our rod and line were anything but elegant, the
former being of unbarked hazel, and the latter a
home-made article of hair, each link twisted by
means of a crooked pin fixed in the crown of an
old hat, and joined by clumsy knots which would
scarcely slip through the eyes of the spectacles
which we are now obliged to use when we mend a
pen or dress a fly.

Lo here, gentle reader, the portrait of a simple
youth, silly .Bobby Beaty, — a quondam angling ac-
quaintance of our own — who laboured under angli-
mania, and who broke the ice on Squire Salkeld's
pond to fish for perch at Christmas. The disease,

176

however, considera"bly abated as he grew older; and
Bob is now only known as one of the most simple
bacon-factors, and one of the most ardent anglers, in
Carlisle, where his passion for fishing has obtained
for him the name of "the Cormorant."

POPE, OR BUFF.

This fish is not unlike a young perch, but from
which species it is readily distinguished by not
having the bars on the sides, and by the largeness
and prominence of the eye. They are not unfre-
quently caught in the Thames when angling for
gudgeons or roach. They are numerous in the
Wensum and the Tare, in Norfolk, where they are
angled for with gentles, a brandling, or a small red
worm. The ruff seldom exceeds seven inches in
length, and the greater number caught are between
five and six.

BAKBEL.

The barbel, though his flesh is little esteemed,
being by some persons considered unwholesome, yet
affords, perhaps, more sport to the angler than any
other fish of the genus to which he belongs. Barbel
are numerous in the Thames, where they are caught
from May to October, though the height of the sea-
son for barbel-fishing is from the middle of July to
the middle of September. Barbel are caught in the
Trent, but in the rivers north of the Humber they

177

are seldom seen. In fishing for barbel, ground-bait
is mostly thrown in to collect the fish; and, to
ensure success, it is generally advisable to bait the
place where it is intended to angle the night before.
The ground-baits chiefly recommended, are soaked
greaves, or worms chopped into pieces, worked up
into balls with clay and bran. Small pieces of
well-soaked greaves are frequently used as bait, aa
also well-scoured lob-worms, gentles, paste, and
pieces of new cheese. In angling for barbel, it is
necessary to use strong tackle, as they struggle hard,
and are irequently caught weighing upwards of five
pounds. Barbel weighing ten pounds are not un-
common, and one is said to have been caught, near
Shepperton, weighing twenty-three pounds. Where
the angler is likely to catch large fish, it is advisa-
ble to use a No. 4 hook, whipped to a link of
twisted gut. They are angled for at bottom, either
with or without a float. In angling for barbel, either
from a punt or the shore, it is necessary to have a
reel on the rod, with a line thirty yards long. The
best time for catching barbel is from day-break till
nine in the morning, and from four in the afternoon
till dusk. Towards evening they generally bite more
freely than at any other time of the day. Near
Shepperton, in August 1807, four gentlemen caught
eighty-three barbel, weighing altogether one hun-
dred and nineteen pounds, in five hours. Of this
number, the two largest weighed twenty pounds ;

178

and the two next in size fifteen; the weight of the
other seventy-nine "being eighty-four pounds, rather
less than an average of a pound and a quarter each

CARP.

The carp is not a common fish, being mostly
found in ponds where it is preserved, or in rivers and
cuts where the bottom is rather soft and the water
almost still. Fine carp are sometimes caught in the
Thames, or the Isis, as the river is commonly called,
between Dorchester and Oxford They are a very
shy fish, and do not take a bait readily. When an-
gled for, it is usual to throw in ground-bait of
brewer's grains, crusts of bread, or worms cut small
and worked up into balls of clay, a day or two be-
fore. As good a bait as any, is a well-scoured lob-
worm, at a foot from the bottom. Cad-bait, gentles,
and paste, are also used as bait for carp. Of all the
branches of fishing, angling for carp is certainly the
dullest and most stupid; and is only fit for those
persons who can sit or stand on one spot for five
or six hours, and return home " contented and grate-
ful" with three nibbles and one bite, and happy
beyond measure with a brace of fish. Carp are
mostly caught from one TO three pounds weight,
though large ones are sometimes taken weighing
six or eight.

, __

179

TENCH.

Tench, like carp, are mostly found in ponds and
still water s, and afford very little sport to the angler.
They are said to prefer a "brandling worm, and may
"be angled for "by those who wish " to kill" a weary
hour, though with small chance of killing fish, in the
same manner as for carp.

CHUB.

This fish, when young, in colour, shape, and ge.
neral appearance, is so like the dace or dare, that
even experienced anglers are sometimes at a loss
to decide whether the fish which they have caught
is to he called a chub or a dace. In such cases, if
the head appear large in proportion to the "body it
is commonly decided to he a chub. In the Eden,
the chub is known by the name of the skelly; and
shoals of them may "be observed lying near fords
and places where cattle are accustomed to drink.
Though chub are usually described as fish which
never leave the fresh water, we have frequently seen
them caught in a salmon-net at the mouth of a
river, in salt water. The last salmon net which we
assisted to haul, contained, in addition to five fine
salmon, a grey mullet, and a chub or skelly eighteen
inches long, with scales like mother of pearl, and
weighing three pounds. Whipping for chub is the
favorite amusement of the fiy-fishers of the Lea, and

180

various are the lures -which they employ,— imitative
"bees, "beetles, wasps grass-hoppers, gentles, and
fiies ; — "but, -with all their means and appliances, it
is seldom that the most accomplished can "boast of
catching a dozen "brace of chub in a day. Chub
will take small dace, minnows, or gudgeons, as well
as worms, paste, gentles, and new cheese. According
to the weather, chub may "be angled for at any depth.
In cold weather they mostly lie near the bottom, it
is advisable to use a reel in angling for chub; for
although he is a faint-hearted fish, soon giving in,
yet, when using fine tackle, it is often necessary to
give him line when he is first struck. Chub may
be angled for from April to December, and they are
said to be the best towards the latter end of the
year. Chub are not generally caught upwards of
two pounds in weight, though fish from three to
five pounds are not uncommon, and some have
been taken weighing from eight to ten.

DACE.

The dace is a handsome fish, and, like the chub,
is angled for with fly, paste, worms, and gen-
tles. They are caught in most rivers in England,
and, as they frequently swim in shoals, they are
sometimes caught in great numbers. When angling
for dace with a fly, small dark-coloured ones, such
as black hackles, small spider and ant fiies, are the
most killing. In ficat-fishing, at mid-water and near

% fat*^

w

181

the surface, gentles are commonly used, and paste
formed of bran and clay may be thrown into the
•water to collect the fish. The common weight of
the dace does not exceed half a pound, though they
have "been taken weighing so much as two. They
may be angled for from April to October.

ROACH.

In angling for roach, it is necessary to use
fine tackle, and as they are not generally of a great
size, a single hair, in the hands of a dextrous angler,
is sufficient to hold them. When angling with

single hair-line, it is necessary to use a land-
ing-net, and to strike gently when you feel a bite
Great numbers of roach are caught in the Thames
and the Lea, with a single-hair line, the hook baited
with paste of soft white bread and honey, and balls
of clay and bran occasionally thrown into the water,
h the roach i

ling paste,

. appears

best after August, the hook ought to swim just clear

of the bottom. Roach may be angled for with gen- u\\ ^

ties, from two to four feet from the surface of the | jjljj^

water, and with small flies, the same

for dace.

Angling for roach and dace is a pleasing amuse-
ment for boys, and an introduction to the higher
departments of the art; but is undeserving of the
attention of the angler who has arrived at years of
discretion, unless he have either nothing else to do
— in which case his angling may be considered as a

penance — or no opportunity of fishing for anything
else. Our engraving shews a fine youth of fifteen—
a portrait— engaged in angling for roach. Good luck
to thee, Tom! thy very attitude, shows that thy
body, as well as thy mind, is at ease. Take thy
pleasure in fresh-water angling while thou mayst,
for within twelve months we expect to receive from
thee — a promising midshipman in one of his Ma-
jesty's frigates on the West India station — a letter
giving an account of fishing for sharks in Montego
Bay.

The rud, though by some naturalists considered
a distinct species, is probably a variety of the roach.
It is never, that we are aware of, caught in streams,
but only in ponds and lakes, or large pieces of
standing water,— such as the fleets of the Trent,—
formed by the occasional overflowing of a river.
It differs chiefly from the roach in being broader,
the colour of its sides more of a yellowish brown;
and the irides yellow. The rud is found in the
fleets of the Trent, in the water at Dagenh am breach,
in Horns ea-m ere in the East Riding of Yorkshire,
and in several ponds in Lincolnshire.

In the Linneean Transactions for 1832, Mr. Yarrell
has described a species of the genus Cyprinus, the
Graining, caught in several streams which flow into
the Mersey, near Warrington, but apparently unknown
in other parts of the country. It resembles the dace
in general appearance, but Mr. "Zarrell is confident
that it is of a distinct species. Its length, compared

sis 5 to 1, while the proportion

dace is as 4 to 1. Bainbridge, in the "Fly-fisher's
Q-uide," describes the Graining as— "rather more slen-
der than the dace; the body almost straight; colour of
the scales silvery, with a bluish cast; the eyes, the
ventral and the anal fins, are of a pale colour." He
also informs us: "that as they rise freely, they
afford good sport to the angler, and when in the
humour, it is not difficult to fill a pannier with
them. They sometimes, though not commonly, ex-
ceed half a pound in weight, and are much better
eating than the dace."

BREAM.

The bream, like the carp and tench, is partial to
still waters. In form it is deeper in the body than
a roach, and in colour it resembles a carp. The
bream is best in September, and grows to five or
six pounds weight. They will take paste, gentles, or
worms, angled with at bottom. In fishing for
bream, boiled malt, or balls of clay and bran, mixed
with pieces of worms, may be used as ground-bait.

G-UDG-EON.

Angling for gudgeons in the Thames, the Lea,
the New River, and the Regent's Canal, is a favorite
amusement with many of the children of a larger
growth resident in London ; and, to speak honestly,

184

we think it equally pleasant as "whipping" for chub,
and decidedly preferable to gazing for hours on a
float in fishing for carp or tench, without ever see-
ing it fairly pulled under water. G-udgeon delight
in gentle streams, with a gravelly or sandy bottom,
which, in fishing for them, ought to be frequently
stirred up with a pole or rake. They take a small
red worm at bottom, and may be angled for from
March to October. They are mostly caught from
five to six inches long.

BLEAK.

This playful and handsome little fish, which is
most numerous in the Lea, is not so frequently
angled for as the gudgeon, though it will rise at a
small artificial fly, and take freely a gentle from
one to two feet below the surface, or a small red
worm at mid-water. A bleak is sometimes used as
a spinning-bait for pike, or large trout, and also in
trolling, though for the latter purpose a gudgeon is
preferable.

MINNOW.

The minnow, which is the smallest species of the
genus Cyprinus known in Britain, is used by the
angler as bait, and caught by the boya for amuse-
ment. Should an elderly gentleman want minnows
for bait, and not be able to get them with a small
net, let him send out his grandson— the youngster
last breeched— give him a rod six feet long, the same

Line, a small hook, and a few

small red worms. Let him have a "bait-kettle with
him to put the minnows into, and tell him to take
them gently, off the hook. If it be likely to rain,
and he a delicate youth, do not allow him to go to
the water-side without an umbrella.

LOACH.

Though the loach is commonly mentioned among
the "baits for pike, yet we never knew any person
who ever used one for that purpose, nor indeed for
any other. They may be caught in the same man-
ner as minnows, though they are by no means so
ready to take a bait. They are found in shallow
streams, and boys mostly catch them with their
hands. They are a very tender fish, and, if roughly
handled, soon die.

BULL-HEAD, OK MILLER'S THUMB.
The miller's thumb is never angled for expressly,
but is sometimes caught with the bait intended for
other fish. We have seen this fish frequently so
caught, but never knew it used as bait, nor as food
for either "beast or body."

EEL.

Eels are not often angled for, though they are
frequently caught when bottom-fishing with worms
for trout, to the great annoyance of the angler, who
generally makes short work of them by setting his

Bb

IT*

foot on their tails, and directly cutting off their
heads, to prevent them entangling his line. Fine
fresh-water eels stewed or potted, form a very
savoury dish ; and the best way to catch them is
by laying night lines. There is no great art
required to make or lay a night-line. The line may
be any kind of cord or twine which may be judged
strong enough, and from twelve to forty yards long,
according to the breadth of the water in which you
intend to lay it. Each hook may be whipped to half
a yard of Dutch twine, and fastened to the line by
a draw knot about three feet apart. Bait the hooks
with what you please — minnows, dace, gudgeons,
frogs, snails, or pieces of lamprey, though nothing
is better than common lob-worms — and to one end
of the line fasten a brick. Either from a boat, or by
wading or throwing, lay the brick as far into the
river as the line will reach, and extend your line
across the stream in a slanting direction. If you
are apprehensive of having your lines stolen, fasten
a brick or a stone to the other end of the line, and
throw it into the water near the bank, so that the
line may be kept extended. Next morning your line
is to be reached by means of drag-hooks, and though
large eels will sometimes drag it a short distance,
yet, if not stolen, you will always find it near to
where you laid it the night before. When the eels
have gorged the hooks, or are entangled in the line,
cut their heads off, and clear your line when you
have leisure.

^

b

M>

r\. JKj*

w

i

t

187

The generation of eels has long "been a subject
of speculation with physiologists and naturalists,
and, notwithstanding all the observations and en-
quiries which have been made upon the subject, the
question is still involved in obscurity. Good old
father Walton was inclined to think that they might
be bred "either of dew, or out of the corruption of
the earth," and this opinion he thinks more probable,
seeing that goslings were produced from the rotten
planks of a ship or hatched from the leaves of trees.
This opinion of the generation of eels and Barnacle
geese has, however, been long abandoned. Sir E verard
Home, after many dissections, believed eels to be
hermaphrodite; and Mr. Jesse, in the first series of
his " Gleanings," after citing several authorities to
prove that eels are viviparous, thus concludes : — " It
is, I think, now sufficiently evident that eels are
viviparous, though in what way they are generated
we are still ignorant." In the second series, however,
he declares that he has had reason to alter this opi-
nion, and that he now believes eels to be oviparous.
Though we are inclined to concur in this belief, we
by no means consider the testimony of the gar-
dener, who is ready to make oath that he caught an
eel full of roe, nor the observations of Mr. Yarrell,
published in the second series of the " Gleanings," as
decisive of the fact. The young fry of eels commonly
make their appearance at Kingston, in their progress
up the Thames, about the 1st of May, though they are
sometimes seen about Twickenham a fortnight ear-

188

3ier. The sum of Mr. Yarrell's observations is, that
from November to the middle of March he observed
no increase in what he decides to be the ovaria
of eels; and that after the 15th of April he found
the roes shed ; but this certainly can never be ad-
mitted as conclusive evidence that eels are ovipa-
rous, more especially if we attend to the fact of
young eels appearing in considerable numbers at the
very time that he concludes the old ones have
spawned. In our apprehension, Mr. Yarrell has just
left the question respecting eels being oviparous or
viviparous, as he found it; and, even granting that
they are oviparous, his observations suggest another
question which is no less deserving the attention of
the naturalist, but which both he and Mr. Jesse seem
most strangely to have overlooked. It is this : — if eels,
according to Mr. Tarrell's observations, spawn about
the middle of April, and since it is a fact that the
young fry of eels appear about that time, do the
ova become quickened immediately on exclusion, or
do they not produce young eels till the expiration
of a year? A person apt to draw hasty conclusions
would be very likely to infer that the young eels
are produced alive, from the fact of their appearing
at the very time that the old ones are supposed to
have spawned, without any intervening time being
allowed for the quickening of the ova after exclusion.
Mr. Tarrell's observations on the presumed " spawn-
ing" of eels, without his saying a word about the
time required to quicken the ova, rather tend to

support than to weaken such an inference. It may be
said—nothing is more easy than to say— that the young
eels which appear in the spring may burst from the
ova in January, or perhaps may have been quickened
towards the conclusion of the preceding year. They
may, or they may not; and we therefore consider
that Mr. Yarrell's observations have left the question
concerning the generation of eels just where he
found it, even if he has been able to distinguish
milts from roes ;— in ascertaining which, judging from
his observations, he seems to have found no diffi-
culty, although so eminent a comparative anatomist
as Sir Everard Home appears to have been unable
to perceive such decisive sexual distinctions, since,
after frequent examination, he was of opinion that
eels were hermaphrodite. The "eel's nest" is still to
be found, and we hope that the next enquirer will
prove more successful in his investigations.

BURBOT.

The burbot or eel-pout, though of a different
genus, is not unlike a thick eel in form. The burbot
rarely exceeds two feet in length, and their average
weight does not exceed a pound. They are more
abundant in the still water of the Foss-dike and
With am navigations, in Lincolnshire, than in any
other part of the kingdom. They are not unfrequent
in Lincoln market, where they are sold at the same
price as eels. They are caught with night lines, in
the same manner as eels. Some writers on natural

190

history assert that they are generally found in
running water and clear streams. The only streams
in which we have known them caught are such as
run very slowly, and which are not remarkable for
their clearness.

STICKLEBACK.

The stickleback is the smallest of fresh-water
fishes, and is sometimes used "by the angler as "bait
for perch, after cutting off the spines on the back and
sides. They are a voracious little fish, and most
destructive of the fry of roach and dace, and of every
other kind of fry which they can manage to swallow.
Zoung leeches are their favorite food. Boys catch
the stickleback without using a hook, merely by
tying a small worm to their line, which the greedy
little fish attempts to swallow, and holds fast till
pulled out.

Having now concluded our brief observations on
the fish principally caught in the rivers and lakes
of England, and on the mode of angling for them,
we may be permitted to remark, that though a love
of angling may be excited by reading, no good an-
gler was ever yet formed merely by book. To excel
in the art requires diligent practice, together with
a "tact" in the management of the rod and line
which no directions can teach, and which some per-
sons angle all their lives without attaining. It is
also to be observed, that a most skilful angler, but

191

wanting perseverance, -will not, generally, bring
home so heavy a creel at the conclusion of a long
day's fishing, as one who may not be able to fish
so fine nor so far off, but who is endowed with
greater perseverance.

" Some youthful gallant here perhaps will say,

This is no pastime for a gentleman,
It were more fit at cards and dice to play,

To use both fence and dancing now and then,
Or walk the streets in nice and strange array,
Or with coy phrases court his mistris' fan :
A poor delight, with toyl and painfull watch,
With losse of time a silly fish to catch."

" Let them that list these pastimes then pursue,

And on their pleasing fancies feed their fill ;

So I the fields and meadows green may view,

And by the rivers clear may walke at will,
Among the daisies- and the violets blew,
Bed hyacinth, and yellow daffodill,
Purple narcissus like the morning rayes,
Pale gandergras, and azure culverkayes.

"I count it better pleasure to behold

The goodly compasse of the lofty skie,
And. in the midst thereof, like burning gold,

The naming chariot of the world's great eye,
The watry clouds that in the ayre uprolled
With sundry kinds of painted colours fiie ,
And faire Aurora lifting up her head,
All blushing rise from old Tithonous' bed.

192

"The lofty woods, the forrests wide and long,
Adorned with leaves and branches fresh and green,
In whose coolbow'rs the birds with chaunting song
Do welcome with their quire the Summer's Queen.

"All these, and many more, of his creation

That made the Heavens, the angler oft doth see ;
And takes therein no little delectation

To think how strange and wonderfull they bee,
Framing thereof an inward contemplation,
To set his thoughts on other fancies free :
And whilst he looks on these with joyfull eye,
His mind is wrapt above the starry skie."

Thus singeth John Dennys, Esquire, in his
"Secrets of Angling," who supplied us with a motto
at the commencement; and with the above pleasing
reminiscences of the old piscatory bard we conclude
"THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR"

THE END.

Printed by J. and C. Adlavd, Bartholomew Close.

^;?3fiffe^»fe

,'

RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
TO^> 202 Main Library

LOAN PERIOD 1

HOME USE

2

3

4

5

6

ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS

Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date.

Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405.

DUE AS STAMPED BELOW

* cW {JJ

i r ?

go - £_}

S %

._;••

NO. DD6,

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY, CA 94720

p >> ) J J ->-z~
>>»>» •) ' > >

»"> 0\> 7 ,;>;> >> ° >•

>>o:r> o .o> :>> >

. •>»:•:>.:> 7 •:>> ->;" >
J5> *>""> 3 -}.> ..->>

>">>A>y^> ^> /> ,>> '
>^>^>^> 3 » JX> s>
> "»» > 5 -}> >> ; -
*»>^^ > > > >^»

>)»~>^> ) ••)> . » ^ :)

>> >o :> >• > >

»->y> > 3 >

>^> ^ ) :» > •>

»~>»^> )
>^ 0.3 > • "> ^S ^38* »
^>^>j> ^> '> >^.TJ> P N
o^^> 7 > ^>J3P ^
>^ ^^ > > v^ 1^ .-2

>.»^^> ^> ^-.0"T»r. JD :

^) n > > i-J

^fe>%

»^->"^
»» > )>

»> ^^>
>»^ ) >

>» 2»
>»> ^ >

--'--' "-^ -- GJ-J» .)

» p> 3p^^

3,) o *K*>-g:
)^> D z^» r
r>3 .^'"»> 2
>»3^>3

> -V> »>>-•>;
) 2>J> ^» |

3p>.5> 1» -j

«> > ^>

> > )

m

^> >
^^ >

> y *m

o

) i>.3 • S

lol

> 2

l» >

.> ^ . »:

> >

E3

•> >

5TB

^ >

I3B> '•>

> >

•^3^ ~~'

> >

Tys>

> > o^

>»

0 ^ ); y>

I»

> >

)^>

> J>

')^>

2 r> >

Dt> >

.) \j»> )j» *

>» > > >
> p
) 5

X»

is ^

QST

! ^> "12,
••>

^> ;"
> 1

»j >
>^> ^>

> j
••> >
1 o
; > ^ >

!^?.>?>

• •••••

• ^A^SP

mm,

-A"

~^^rr-!

iiilfi

l^f&^mm^ %\\

^:-^